^KY  OF  PRiivc?7gjs 


^LOGm  SE!A\!5^ 


BX  9211  .T65  F52  1912 
Hall,  John,  1806-1894. 
History  of  the  Presbyterian' 
Church  in  Trenton,  N.J. 


REV.  JOHN  HALL,  D.D. 


MAY  18  1955 


HISTORY 


OF  THE 

Presbyterian  Church 

IN  TRENTON,  N.  J. 

FROM  THE  FIRST  SETTLEMENT  OF  THE  TOWN 
By  JOHN   HALL,  D.D. 

MEMBER  OF   THE   PRESBYTERIAN    HISTORICAL  SOCIETY,   AND   OF    THE   HISTORICAL 
SOCIETIES    OF    NEW    JERSEY,    PENNSYLVANIA   AND    WISCONSIN. 

SECOND  EDITION 


Prepared  for  the  observance  of  the  Two  Hundredth  Anniversary  of  the 

First  Church,  v^^ith  much  supplementary  material  collected 

by  Dr.  Hall  during  his  Pastorate 


TRENTON,  N.  J. 
MacCrEllish  &  QuiGLEY,  Printers 

1912 


I 


PREFACE. 


T  WILL  be  at  once  noticed  that  this  volume  introduces  many  per- 
sons, places,  and  incidents,  as  well  as  churches,  that  do  not  come 
strictly  within  the  scope  of  its  title.  But  I  thought  that  it  would 
contribute  to  the  interest  and  usefulness,  not  to  say  the  circulation  of 
the  book,  to  make  it  contain  as  much  information  as  without  positive 
incongruity  could  be  collected  from  the  materials  that  came  before 
me,  and  which  would  probably  not  fall  so  easily  into  other  hands. 

I  take  the  opportunity  of  asking  to  be  apprised  of  the  errors  or  omis- 
sions that  may  be  discovered,  and  of  any  additional  facts  or  documents 
relative  to  the  history,  which  would  make  it  more  complete. 

Havfng  now  fulfilled  the  request  of  many  esteemed  friends  in  the 
church  and  city,  I  leave  the  work  in  their  hands,  hoping  that  none  will 
be  wholly  disappointed,  and  praying  that  the  result  may  show  that  the 
time  it  has  occupied  has  not  been  spent  at  all  inconsistently  with  the 
obligations  of  my  sacred  office  and  my  particular  charge. 

Trenton,  March  23,  1859. 

(iii) 


PREFACE  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION. 


A  FTER  the  publication  of  his  History,  in  1859,  Dr.  Hall  continued 
the  collection  of  all  manner  of  interesting  illustrative  material, 
which  he  wrote  out  at  length  in  a  book  to  which  he  gave  the  title  "Sup- 
plement to  the  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Trenton,  by  John 
Hall,  New  York,  1859."  This  manuscript  book  he  deposited  in  the 
archives  of  the  church.  In  the  preparation  of  this  second  edition  the 
bulk  of  this  supplement  has  been  added  to  the  book  of  1859,  in  the 
form  of  an  appendix.  Dr.  Hall's  preface  to  his  supplementary  collec- 
tion is  as  follows : 

"It  should  be  remembered  that  the  History  was,  avowedly,  not 
exclusively  that  of  the  First  Church  (as  sometimes  noted  in  books 
and  pamphlets),  but  of  the  'Presbyterian  Church  in  Trenton,'  and 
'from  the  first  settlement  of  the  town.'  Also,  that,  as  declared  in  the 
Preface,  'many  persons,  places  and  incidents,  as  well  as  churches,' 
were  introduced,  because  of  the  opportunity  which  I  then  had,  and  no 
one  might  have  again,  of  obtaining  the  information,  even  though  the 
facts  had  no  direct  connection  with  the  name  of  the  work.  I  have 
taken  the  same  license  in  the  Supplement,  and  hope  to  forestall  objec- 
tions by  foretelling  on  this  page  that  it  has  purposely  included  many 
names  and  occurrences  which  have  only  an  indirect  or  casual  associa- 
tion with  the  title,  but  which  are  not  without  some  interest  in  them- 
selves, and  will  demand  no  apology." 

No  changes  in  either  the  text  or  the  form  of  Dr.  Hall's  unique 
and  invaluable  book  have  been  made,  except  that  a  very  few  of  the 
footnotes,  essential  to  the  correctness  and  accuracy  of  the  text,  have 
been  incorporated  with  it,  and  others  of  a  general  illustrative  character 

(v) 


vi  PREFACE. 

have  been  transferred  to  the  appendix,  where  they  appear  in  connec- 
tion with  the  other  material  of  the  Supplement.  A  very  few  errors, 
pointed  out  by  Dr.  Hall  himself  in  his  notes,  have  been  corrected.  It 
is  believed  that  this  second  and  enlarged  edition  of  Dr.  Hall's  work 
will  prove  not  less  interesting  and  valuable,  to  readers  of  a  later  time, 
than  was  the  first  book  to  his  friends  and  fellow-townsmen  of  1859. 

I  gratefully  acknowledge  the  aid  of  the  Rev.  John  Dixon,  D.D.,  the 
Rev.  Lewis  Seymour  Mudge,  D.D.,  and  the  Rev.  Henry  Collin  Minton, 
D.D.,  who  have  written  the  history  of  the  church  during  their  pas- 
torates, but  especially  am  I  indebted  to  the  Rev.  Walter  A.  Brooks, 
D.D.,  who  has  most  happily  combined  the  Supplementary  Collections 
with  the  first  published  text  in  a  continuous  narrative,  the  original 
authorship  of  each  being  exactly  preserved.  Also  am  I  indebted  to 
the  Hon.  Garret  D.  W.  Vroom  for  his  generous  interest  in  the  super- 
vision of  the  book  through  the  press,  for  his  valued  suggestions,  and 
for  his  interest  in  securing  some  of  the  historical  facts  and  illustra- 
tions for  the  book. 

MARY  ANNA  HALL. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

PAGE. 

Presbyterian    Settlement   of   Central    New   Jersey — Falls   of 
Delaware — 1682-1700,    i 

CHAPTER  n. 
The  Churches  of  Hopewell  and  Maidenhead — 1698-1736,  13 

CHAPTER  HI. 
The  Trenton  Church — The  Rev.  David  Cowell — 1714-1738,  31 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Rev.  Mr.  Cowell  and  Rev.   M!r.  Tennent— Schism  of  Synod — 
1736-1760,    47 

CHAPTER  V. 

Trenton   in    1748 — Episcopal   Churches — Trenton    Names   and 
Places — i 746-1760,    57 

CHAPTER  VI. 

College    of     New     Jersey — Cowell,     Burr,     Davies,     Finley — 
1746-1760,    69 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Mr.  Co  well's  Death  and  Burial — 1 759-1760,  81 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
The  First  Charter  of  the  Church — Trustees — 1756-1760,  93 

CHAPTER  IX. 

Ministry  of  the  Rev.   Wm.   Kirkpatrick — His   History — 1760- 
1766,    99 

(vii) 


viii  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X. 

PAGE. 

Trustees — Trenton  and  Maidenhead — 1764-1769,  117 

CHAPTER  XL 
EuHu  Spencer,  D.D. — His  Previous  History — 1721-1769,   125 

CHAPTER  Xn. 
Dr.  Spencer's  Congregation — 1769-1773,  139 

CHAPTER  XHL 

Dr.   Spencer's   Ministry — Revolutionary  Incidents  in   Trenton 
— 1773-1780,    159 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
CivOSE  OF  Dr.  Spencer's  Ministry — His  Death — 1780-1784,   171 

CHAPTER  XV. 

The  Rev.  J.  F.  Armstrong — Previous  History  and  Settlement 
—1750-1790,    179 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  General  Assembly — New  Constitution  of  the  Church — 
Notes,  1785-1790,  ' 193 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Public  Occasions  in  Trenton — Notes — 1789-1806,   201 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
The  Nev/  Brick  Church — Notes — 1804-1806,   213 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

Theological      Seminary — Mr.      Armstrong's      Death — Notes — 
1807-1816,    223 

CHAPTER  XX. 

Samuel   B.   Hov^,    D.D. — William    J.    Armstrong,    D.D. — Rev.    John 
Smith — Notes — 1816-1828,    237 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  ix 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

PAGE. 

James    W.    Alexander,    D.D. — John    W.    Yeomans,    D.D. — John 
Hall,  D.D.— 1829-1859,   249 

CHAPTER  XXn. 
Supplementary  Items — 1859-1884,   265 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
John  Dixon,  D.D. — Lewis  Seymour  Mudge,  D.D. — 1884-1901,  ...  271 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
Henry  Collin  Minton,  D.D.,  283 


APPENDIX. 


PAGE. 

I.  Dr.  Hall's  Supplement,  291 

II.  History  of  the  Proposal  to   make  Trenton  the  Capital 

OF  THE  United  States,   365 

III.  Deed  OF  Basse  and  Revel,  371 

IV.  List  of  the  Pastors,  Elders,  Deacons  and  Trustees  of  Tren- 

ton Church,    273 

V.  List  of  Burials  Made  from  Inscriptions  on  the  Headstones 

in  the  Church-Yard, 377 

VI.  Inscriptions  on  Tombstones  Under  the  First  Presbyterian 

Church,    393 


PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  IN  TRENTON. 


CHAPTER  I. 


Presbyterian  Setti^ement  oe  Central  New  Jersey — 
Falls  oe  Delaware. 

1682^ — 1700. 

The  territory  occupied  by  the  present  city  of  Trenton  lies 
so  near  the  boundary  between  the  Berkeley  and  the  Car- 
teret, or  the  east  and  the  west  sections  of  the  Province  of 
New  Jersey,  that  the  history  of  its  settlement  is  connected 
with  that  of  both  the  original  divisions.  The  advance  of 
the  Quaker  colonists  from  the  south  and  west,  and  of  the 
Dutch  and  Puritan  from  the  north  and  east,  gradually  peo- 
pled this  central  region.  It  is,  however,  to  the  policy  which 
invited  to  East  Jersey  the  inhabitants  of  Scotland  and  Ire- 
land that  we  owe  the  immigration,  which,  in  the  course  of 
time,  gave  Presbyterian  features  to  the  religious  character 
of  its  inhabitants,  and  made  it  "the  cradle  of  Presbyterian- 
ism  in  America."*  In  the  year  1682,  when  Carteret's  in- 
terest in  New  Jersey  was  purchased  by  William  Penn  and 
his  eleven  associates,  the  Society  of  Friends,  of  which  they 
all  were  members,  was  the  smallest  religious  denomination 
there.  The  few  settlements  that  existed  at  the  time — the 
whole  population  was  not  more  than  five  thousand — were 
composed  chiefly  of  families  that  had  emigrated  from  New 
England,  Holland  and  Scotland.  As  West  New  Jersey  and 
Pennsylvania  were  sufficient  to  absorb  the  Quaker  interest, 
it  was  a  matter  of  policy  to  place  the  new  enterprise  on  such 


Hildreth's    "United    States,"   vol.   ii.   Chapter   17. 

I    PRES  (l) 


2  HISTORY   OF   THE 

a  foundation  as  would  be  inviting  to  persons  of  all  creeds. 
For  this  purpose  the  twelve  original  proprietors  determined 
to  share  their  interest  with  an  equal  number  of  new  adven- 
turers. The  leading  varieties  of  ecclesiastical  connections 
then  prevailing  in  the  mother  countries  of  England,  Scot- 
land and  Ireland,  seem  to  have  been  represented  in  the  new 
body  of  proprietors,  but  most  of  them,  whether  Protestants 
or  Romanists,  and  even  the  leading  Quakers,  were  connected 
with  Scotland.  The  second  set  were  a  motley  collection. 
The  earls  of  Perth  and  Melford  (Drummond)  had  apos- 
tatized to  Romanism  from  the  Church  of  Scotland  on  the 
accession  of  James  II.  "They  did  this,"  says  Macaulay,* 
"with  a  certain  audacious  baseness  which  no  English  states- 
man could  hope  to  emulate."  They  were,  at  the  time  of 
becoming  proprietors  in  the  land  of  toleration,  persecuting 
in  Scotland  such  as  refused  to  testify  against  the  Presby- 
terians. Barclay  was  a  native  of  Scotland,  became  a  Roman 
Catholic  in  Paris,  was  thereupon  recalled  by  his  father,  and 
both  became  Quakers.  The  Scotch  and  Irish  Presbyterians 
and  New  England  Puritans  (many,  perhaps  most,  of  whom 
were  Presbyteriansf),  made  the  moral  character  of  the 
Province.  In  July,  1684,  a  vessel  from  Leith  carried  one 
hundred  and  sixty  passengers,  and  another  from  Montrose 
one  hundred  and  thirty  tO'  East  Jersey.  In  that  year  Gawen 
Lawrie,  the  Deputy  Governor,  wrote  from  Elizabethtown : 
"The  Scots  and  William  Dockwra's^  people,  coming  now 
and  settling,  advance  the  Province  more  than  it  hath  been 
advanced  these  ten  years."  In  closing  a  glowing  account 
of  the  Province,  he  says :  "I  have  none  tO'  write  for  me,  but 
you  must  send  a  copy  of  this  to  Scotland."  In  another  letter 
of  the  same  month,  the  same  writer  remarks :  "The  Scots 
have  taken  a  right  course.  They  have  sent  over  many  ser- 
vants, and  are  likewise  sending  more.     They  have  likewise 


*  "History  of   England,"   chapter  6. 

t  See   Hodge's   "Constitutional   History,"   part  i,   22-39. 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  3 

sent  over  many  poor  families,  and  given  them,  a  small 
stock."  James  Johnston  writes  to  his  brother  in  Edin- 
burgh :  "It  is  most  desired  there  may  be  some  ministers 
sent  us  over;  they  would  have  considerable  benefices  and 
good  estates;  and  since  it  would  be  a  matter  of  great  piety, 
I  hope  you  will  be  instrumental  tO'  advise  some  over  to  us." 
There  appears  to  have  been  an  early  provision  in  some 
places  for  the  ministry.     Oldmixon  says  r'^ 

"A  year  or  two  after  the  surrender  [of  the  patents  of  the  proprie- 
taries to  the  Crown,  1702],  Sergeant  Hook  purchased  3,750  acres  of 
land  in  West  Jersey,  and  gave  the  tenth  part  of  it  as  a  glebe  to  the 
Church.  He  was  a  Presbyterian;  but  I  suppose  glebe  is  as  consistent 
with  that  denomination,  as  any  other." 

Peter  Watson  writes  to  a  friend  in  Selkirk  (August, 
1684)  :  "We  have  great  need  of  good  and  faithful  minis- 
ters, and  I  wish  that  there  would  come  over  some  here; 
they  can  live  as  well  and  have  as  much  as  in  Scotland,  and 
more  than  many  get.  We  have  none  within  all  the  Prov- 
ince of  East  Jersey,  except  one  who  is  preacher  in  New- 
ark ;  there  were  one  or  two  preachers  more  in  the  Province, 
but  they  are  dead,  and  now  the  people  meet  together  every 
Sabbath  day  and  read,  and  pray,  and  sing  psalms  in  their 
meeting-houses."  In  January,  1685.  Fullerton  writes  from 
Elizabethtown  to  Montrose :  "By  my  next  I  hope  to  insure 
sixty  or  seventy  pounds  to  the  parson,  for  we  want  a  min- 
ister." In  March,  1685,  Cockburn  writes  to  Scotland: 
"There  is  nothing  discourages  us  more  than  want  of  min- 
isters here ;  but  now  they  have  agreed  about  their  stipends, 
there  is  one  to  be  placed  in  N'ew^  P'erth,  Piscataway,  Wood- 
bridge  and  Elizabethtown.  They  have  a  mind  to  bring 
them,  from  Scotland."  Among  the  emigrants  who  left  Scot- 
land in  1685  was  George  Scot,  Laird  of  Pitlochie.  It  was 
the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  James  II.,  when  already  the 

*  British   Empire  in  America,   i.   p.   294. 


4  HISTORY   OF   THE 

non-conformists  of  England  and  Scotland  perceived  that 
they  had  nothing  to  expect  under  the  new  monarch  but  a 
continuance  of  the  persecutions  of  which  their  country,  for 
its  faith's  sake,  had  been  the  bloody  field.  "Never,"  says 
Macaulay,  "not  even  under  the  tyranny  of  Laud,  had  the 
condition  of  the  Puritans  been  so  deplorable  as  at  that  time. 
*  *  *  Through  many  years  the  autumn  of  1685  ^'^^ 
remembered  by  the  non-conformists  as  a  time  of  misery 
and  terror.  *  *  *  In  Scotland  the  King  had  demanded 
and  obtained  new  statutes  of  unprecedented  severity  against 
the  Presbyterians."*  "Severe  as  the  sufferings  of  the  non- 
conformists in  England  were  at  this  period,"  says  another 
historian,  "they  were  nothing  compared  with  that  was  en- 
dured by  the  poor  Presbyterians  of  Scotland."! 

George  Scot  advertised  his  project  in  the  following  terms  : 

"Whereas,  There  are  several  people  in  this  kingdom,  who,  upon 
account  of  their  not  going  that  length  in  conformity  required  of  them 
by  the  law,  do  live  very  uneasy;  who,  beside  the  other  agreeable  ac- 
commodations of  that  place  [East  New  Jersey]  may  there  freely  enjoy 
their  own  principles  without  hazard  or  the  least  trouble ;  seeing  there 
are  ministers  of  their  own  persuasion  going  along  with  the  said  Mr. 
George  Scot ;  who,  by  the  fundamental  constitution  of  that  country 
are  allowed  the  free  exercise  of  their  ministry,  such  as  Mr.  Archibald 
Riddel,  brother  to  Sir  John  Riddel,  of  Riddel;  Mr.  Thomas  Patter- 
son, late  minister  of  Borthwick,  and  several  other  ministers ;  it  is 
hereby  signified  to  all,  who  desire  this  voyage,  that  the  Henry  and 
Francis,  of  Newcastle,  a  ship  of  350  tons,  and  twenty  great  guns, 
Richard  Hutton,  master,  is  freighted  for  the  transportation  of  these 
families,  and  will  take  in  passengers  and  goods  at  Leith,  and  passen- 
gers at  Montrose,  and  Aberdeen,  and  Kirkwa,  in  Orkney,  and  set  sail 
thence  for  East  New  Jersey,  against  the  20th  day  of  July,  God  willing." 

Scot  sailed   about   the  time  specified,   with   nearly  two 
hundred   of  his   countrymen,   but   himself   and   wife   died 

*  "History  of  England,"  chap.  s>  7- 

t  Orme's  "Life  of  Baxter,"  i.  294.  And  see  Wodrow's  "History  of  the  Suffer- 
ings of  the  Church  of  Scotland." 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  5 

on  the  voyage.-  Previous  to  his  embarking  he  published  at 
Edinburgh  a  volume  of  272  pages,  entitled:  "The  Model 
of  the  Government  of  the  Province  of  East  New  Jersey  in 
America;  and  Encouragement  for  Such  as  Design  to  be 
Concerned  There."^  The  Scottish  Presbyterian,  or  one 
knowing  he  was  writing  to  such,  is  at  once  detected  in  the 
elaborate  and  learned  argument,  which  precedes  all  his 
statistics,  to  prove  a  warrant  for  colonization  from  the 
word  of  God.  Among  his  points  is  that  the  wonderful 
openings  to  the  discovery  of  America,  and  the  encourage- 
ments offered  to  Protestant  nations,  indicated  the  purpose 
of  Providence  that  "he  might  at  length  cause  the  glorious 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  shine  out  to  them  as  it  did  to  other 
nations,  after  the  sharp  times  of  the  bitter  desolations 
thereof  betwixt  the  Romans  and  them."  In  bolder  terms 
than  in  the  more  public  advertisement  of  his  undertaking, 
he  thus  appeals  to  the  religious  jealousy  of  his  fellow- 
churchmen  : 

"You  see,  it  is  now  judged  the  interest  of  the  government  altogether 
to  suppress  the  Presbyterian  principles;  and  that  in  order  thereto  the 
whole  force  and  bensill  [violence]  of  the  law  of  this  kingdom  are 
leveled  at  the  effectual  bearing  them  down;  that  the  vigorous  putting 
those  laws  in  execution  hath  in  a  great  part  ruined  many  of  these, 
who,  notwithstanding  thereof,  find  themselves  in  conscience  obliged  to 
retain  these  principles;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  Episcopacy  is,  by  the 
same  laws,  supported  and  protected.  I  would  gladly  know  what  other 
rational  medium  can  be  proposed  in  their  circumstances,  than  either  to 
comply  with  the  government  by  going  what  length  is  required  by  law 
in  conforming,  or  to  retreat  where  by  law  a  toleration  is  by  his 
Majesty  allowed.  Such  a  retreat  doth  at  present  offer  itself  in  America, 
and  is  nowhere  else  to  be  found  in  his  Majesty's  dominions." 

We  find  in  this  connection  an  allusion  to  the  north  of 
Ireland,  which  was  fully  realized  in  subsequent  years,  in 
the  contributions  made  from  that  quarter  to  the  Presby- 
terian population  of  America. 

"I  had  an  account  lately  from  an  acquaintance  of  mine,  that  the 
Province  of  Ulster,  where  most  of  our  nation  are  seated,  could  spare 


6  HISTORY   OF   THE 

forty  thousand  men  and  women  to  an  American  plantation,  and  be 
sufficiently  peopled  itself.  The  gentleman  who  gave  me  this  informa- 
tion is  since  settled  in  Maryland ;  the  account  he  sends  of  that  country 
is  so  encouraging  that  I  hear  a  great  many  of  his  acquaintances  are 
making  for  that  voyage."* 

But  it  was  not  contemplated  to  establish  the  Kirk  in  New 
Jersey.  "Presbyter"  of  Britain  was  not,  according  to 
Milton,  to  be  "Priest  writ  large"  in  America.  "Liberty  in 
matters  of  religion,"  said  Scot,  "is  established  in  the  full- 
est manner.  To  be  a  planter  or  inhabitant,  nothing  is 
required  but  the  acknowledging  of  one  Almighty  God;' 
and  to  have  a  share  in  the  government  a  simple  profession 
of  faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  without  descending  intO'  any  other 
of  the  differences  among  Christians ;  only  that  religion  may 
not  be  a  cloak  for  disturbance,  who  ever  comes  into  the 
Magistrature,  must  declare  they  hold  not  themselves  in 
conscience  obliged,  for  religion's  sake,  to  make  an  altera- 
tion, or  toi  endeavor  tO'  turn  out  their  partners  in  the  gov- 
ernment, because  they  differ  in  opinion  from  them ;  and 
this  is  no  more  than  to  follow  the  great  rule,  to  do  as 
they  would  be  done  by." 

Mr.  Bancroft,  after  following  the  remark,  "this  is  the 
era  at  which  East  New  Jersey,  till  now  chiefly  colonized 
from  New  England,  became  the  asylum  of  Scottish  Presby- 
terians," with  an. eloquent  sketch  of  the  sufferings  of  that 
people  under  the  attempt  of  the  Stuarts  to  force  Episcopacy 
upon  them,  asks:  "Is  it  strange  that  Scottish  Presbyterians 
of  virtue,  education  and  courage,  blending  a  love  of  popu- 
lar liberty  with  religious  enthusiasm,  hurried  to  East  New 
Jersey  in  such  numbers  as  to^  give  to  the  rising  common- 
wealth a  character  which  a  century  and  a  half  has  not 
effaced?"  "In  a  few  years,"  he  adds,  "a  law  of  the  com- 
monwealth, giving  force  to  the  common  principle  of  the 
New   England   and   the   Scottish   Calvinists,   established   a 


*  See  "History  of  the  Church  of  Ireland,"  Biblical  Repertory,  April,   1844,  Octo- 
ber, 1859. 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  7 

system  of  free  schools.  *  *  *  Thus  the  mixed  character 
O'f  New  Jersey  springs  from  the  different  sources  of  its 
people.  Puritans,  Covenanters  and  Quakers  met  on  her 
soil;  and  their  faith,  institutions  and  preferences,  having 
life  in  the  common  mind,  survive  the  Stuarts."* 

Robert  Barclay  was  the  first  Governor  under  the  new 
proprietary  administration  (i68'3).  Although  the  office 
w^as  given  him  for  life,  he  was  not  required  to  reside  in 
the  Province,  and,  in  fact,  he  never  saw  it,  but  was  repre- 
sented by  deputies.  Mr.  Grahame,  in  his  "Colonial  His- 
tory," says,  under  1685 :  ''As  a  further  recommendation 
O'f  the  Province  to  the  favor  of  the  Scotch,  Barclay  dis- 
placing a  deputy  (Lawrie),  whom  he  had  appointed  of  his 
own  religious  persuasion,  conferred  this  office  on  Lord 
Neil  Campbell,  uncle  of  the  Marquis  oi  Argyle,  who'  re- 
paired to  East  Jersey  and  remained  there  for  some  time 
as  its  Lrieiitenant  Governor."  Campbell  was  followed  by 
another  Scotchman,  Andrew  Hamilton. 

While  Presbyterians  were  thus  finding  homes  in  the 
northern  and  eastern  parts  of  the  Province,  others  mingled 
with  the  settlemients  that  were  creeping  up  the  Delaware 
on  both  banks  and  scattering  between  the  river  and  the 
ocean.  The  first  church  in  Philadelphia  (less  than  thirty 
miles  from  Trenton)  was  organized  about  1698.  There 
was  a  Dutch  Presbyterian  Church  at  Neshaminy  (twenty 
miles)  in  1710.  But  the  church  in  Monmouth  county, 
originally  called  "the  Scotch  Meeting-House,"  better 
known  to'  us  as  the  "Tennent  Church"  (thirty  miles),  was 
formed  of  Scottish  materials  about  1692.  Its  first  pastor 
was  fromi  Scotland.^ 

I  have  indulged  in  the  foregoing  retrospect  for  the  pur- 
pose of  showing  the  origin  and  general  progress  of  the 
population  that  at  length  reached  the  more  central  region 
where  the  capital  of  the  Province  came  to  be  established. 

*  Bancroft's  "Colonial  History,"  chap.    17. 


8  HISTORY   OF   THE 

And  here  I  introduce,  as  a  curious  local  memorandum,  the 
earliest  record  to  be  found  of  a  journey  on  what  is  now 
one  of  the  two  great  thoroughfares  between  New  York 
and  Philadelphia,  by  Trenton,  but  eight  years  before  Phila- 
delphia was  laid  out  by  Penn,  and  when  the  site  of  Tren- 
ton was  only  known  as  at  "the  Falls  of  the  Delaware." 
William  Edmundson,  a  minister  of  the  Friends  from  Eng- 
land, made  the  following  entry  in  his  journal  of  1675,  after 
leaving  Shrewsbury  and  Middletown : 

"Next  morning  we  took  our  journey  through  the  wilderness  towards 
Maryland,  to  cross  the  river  at  Delaware  Falls.  Richard  Hartshorn 
and  Eliakim  Wardell  would  go  a  day's  journey  with  us.  We  hired 
an  Indian  to  guide  us,  but  he  took  us  wrong,  and  left  us  in  the  woods. 
When  it  was  late  we  alighted,  put  our  horses  to  grass,  and  kindled  a 
fire  by  a  little  brook,  convenient  for  water  to  drink,  to  lay  down  till 
morning,  but  were  at  a  great  loss  concerning  the  way,  being  all 
strangers  in  the  wilderness.  Richard  Hartshorn  advised  to  go  back 
to  Rarington  river,  about  ten  miles  back,  as  was  supposed,  to  find  out 
a  small  landing  place  from  New  York,  from  whence  there  was  a  small 
path  that  led  to  Delaware  Falls.  So  we  rode  back,  and  in  some  time 
found  the  landing  place  and  little  path;  then  the  two  friends  corrmiitted 
us  to  the  Lord's  guidance,  and  went  back.  We  traveled  that  day, 
and  sazu  no  tame  creature.  At  night  we  kindled  a  fire  in  the  wilder- 
ness and  lay  by  it,  as  we  used  to  do  in  such  journeys.  Next  day,  about 
nine  in  the  morning,  by  the  good  hand  of  God,  we  came  well  to  the 
Falls,  and  by  His  providence  found  there  an  Indian  man,  a  woman, 
and  boy  with  a  canoe;  so  we  hired  him  for  some  wampampeg  to  help 
us  over  in  the  canoe ;  we  swam  our  horses,  and  though  the  river  was 
broad,  yet  got  well  over,  and  by  the  direction  we  received  from  friends, 
traveled  towards  Delawaretown  [probably  Newcastle],  along  the  west 
side  of  the  river.  When  we  had  rode  some  miles,  we  baited  our 
horses  and  refreshed  ourselves  with  such  provisions  as  we  had,  for 
as  yet  zve  zuere  not  come  to  any  inhabitants."* 

As  "the  Falls  of  the  Delaware"  was  not  only  the  first 
name  given  to  the  part  of  the  river  where  Trenton  was 
afterwards  built,  but  was  for  more  than  a  century  used  to 

*  "A  Journal  of  the  life,  travels,  sufferings,  and  labors  of  love  in  the  work  of 
the  ministry  of  that  worthy  elder  and  faithful  servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  William 
Edmundson,  who  departed  this  life  the  31st  of  the  sixth  month,  1712."  London. 
1715.      (Philadelphia  Library,  No.  668.     8vo.) 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  9 

denote  the  general  locality,  it  may  be  well  to  notice  that 
Avhat  is  dignified  by  the  term,  is  no  more  than  the  rapids 
of  the  current  in  the  descent  of  about  eighteen  feet  in  six 
miles. ^  The  association  of  the  term  has  often  led  to  the 
confounding  of  the  Trenton  ripples  with  the  truly  grand 
falls  of  West  Canada  creek  in  New  York,  which  are  called 
''Trenton  Falls"  from  a  village  in  their  vicinity.  This  has 
given  occasion  to  some  ludicrous  disappointments  with 
travelers.^  It  was  probably  the  cause  of  the  illusion  of 
the  English  tourist  in  1797,  who  "entered  the  State  of 
New  Jersey  and  slept  at  Trenton,  which  we  left  before 
sunrise  the  next  morning;  a  circumstance  I  regretted,  as 
I  wished  tO'  see  the  falls  of  the  river  Delaware  in  that 
neighborhood,  which,  I  am  informed,  are  worthy  the  at- 
tention of  a  traveler."*  The  translator  of  the  work  of 
Kalm,  to  be  more  fully  quoted  hereafter,  raises  the  humble 
rapids  mentioned  by  the  Swede,  to  "the  cataracts  of  the 
Delaware  near  Trenton. "f  Another  Englishman,  and 
president  of  the  Royal  Astronomical  Society,  pronounced, 
in  1796,  that  "these  do  not  deserve  the  name  of  falls,  being 
nothing  more  than  a  ledge  of  rocks  reaching  across  the 
river,  and  obstructing  the  navigation  for  large  vessels. "| 

Wansey,  the  "Wiltshire  Clothier,"  says  in  1794:  "In 
passing  the  Delaware  with  our  coachee,  we  ferry  within 
ten  yards  of  one  of  the  rapids,  by  which  we  are  to  under- 
stand that  part  of  a  river  where  the  bed  is  almost  filled  up 
with  rocks,  chiefly  below  the  surface  of  the  water,  which 
occasions  the  current  to  pass  very  quick  and  make  it 
dangerous  to  those  who  are  not  acquainted  with  the  navi- 
gation.** In  a  work  by  Dr.  Douglas,  a  Scotchman,  but 
for  thirty  years  a  resident  of  Boston,  the  following  de- 


*  "Priest's  Travels,   1793-7."     London. 

t  "Kalm's  Travels,  by  Forster."     London.     1770.     I.  49. 

t  "Journal  of  a  tour  in  unsettled  parts  of  North  America  in  1796  and  1797. 
By  the  late  Francis  Baily,  President  of  the  Royal  Astronomical  Society."  London. 
1836.     P.  115. 

**  "Journal  of  an  Excursion,"  p.   106. 


lo  HISTORY   OF   THE 

scription  is  given  of  the  navigfation  of  the  Delaware  river 
in  1749-53:  "From  Philadelphia  to  Trent-Town  Falls  are 
thirty-five  miles ;  these  are  the  first  falls  in  the  river,  and 
the  tide  reaches  up  so  high ;  these  falls  are  practicable,  and 
the  river  navigable  with  boats  that  carry  eight  or  nine  tons 
iron,   fortv  miles  higher  tO'  Durham'  iron  works. 


*    * 


Froni'  Trent-Town  Falls  this  river  is  practicable  upwards 
of  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  for  Indian  canoe  navigation, 
several  small  falls  or  carrying  places  intervening."* 

It  was  at  the  Falls  that  Mahlon  Stacy,  a  Yorkshireman, 
found  the  tract  of  land  that  commended  itself  as  the  most 
suitable  site  for  a  new  settlement.  He  was  one  of  the 
emigrants  to  Burlington  (or  Bridlington)  in  1678,  and 
being  a  creditor  oi  Byllinge,  he  obtained  from  his  assignees 
eight  hundred  acres,  lying  on  both  sides  of  the  Assanpink, 
a  creek  which  empties  into;  the  Delaware  at  Trenton.  Here 
he  took  up  his  own  abode  and  built  a  grist  mill."  If, 
according  to  Smith's  "History  of  New  Jersey,"  the  first 
name  given  to  the  settlement  at  the  Falls  was  "Little- 
worth,"  the  disparaging  title  must  have  been  disdained  by 
Stacy,  who  pronounced  it  "a  most  brave  place,  whatever 
envy  or  evil  spies  may  speak  of  it."^ 

In  letters  dated  from^  "the  Falls  of  Delaware"  in  1680, 
Stacy  extols  the  fertility  of  the  whole  region,  the  abund- 
ance of  fruit  ("peaches  in  such  plenty  that  some  people 
took  their  carts  a  peach-gathering.  I  could  not  but  smile 
at  the  conceit  of  it"),  berries,  game  and  fish,  whilst  he  "hon- 
estly declares  there  is  some  barren  land,  as  (I  suppose) 
there  is  in  most  places  of  the  world,  and  more  wood  than 
some  would  have  upon  their  lands ;  neither  will  the  country 
produce  corn  without  labor,  nor  cattle  be  got  without  some- 
thing to  buy  them,  nor  bread  with  idleness ;  else  it  would 
be  a  good  country  indeed."     The  good  Friend  would  not 


*  ("A  Summary,  historical  and  political,  of  the  first  planting,  progressive  im- 
provements, and  present  state  of  the  British  Settlements  in  North  America."  By- 
William  Douglass,  M.D.     Boston.     Vol.  I.   i749-     Vol.  II.   1753.     Vol.  II.,  p.  312.) 


FIRST   PRESBYTEIRIAN    CHURCH.  ir 

overlook  the  guidance  of  Providence  in  his  own  case,  nor 
encourage  his  Yorkshire  correspondents  to  follow  him 
over  the  sea,  unless  they  felt  the  same  inward  direction. 
"When  I  am  walking  alone,  and  the  sense  of  the  Lord's 
good  dealings  is  brought  before  me,  I  cannot  but  admire 
him  for  his  mercies,  and  often  in  secret  bless  his  name 
that  ever  he  turned  my  face  hitherward,  and  gave  me  con- 
fidence in  himself,  and  boldness  by  faith  to  oppose  all  gain- 
sayers,  though  never  so  strong.  *  *  *  jf  yQ^^  have  clear- 
ness to  come  to  New  Jersey,  let  nothing  hinder;  but  if  you 
have  a  stop  within  yourself,  let  not  anything  farther  you^ 
until  the  way  clears  to  your  full  satisfaction." 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  Churches  oe  Hopewell  and  Maidenhead. 

1698 — 1736. 


HyMTlE    ^   @    ©  M 

V 

©  PENNINGTON  /  % 

t 
I 

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^^AWa£/\lCEV/Llf 


This  little  map  will  serve  to  explain  the  topography  of 
the  region  embraced  in  the  history  of  the  united  churches 
of  Hopewell  and  Maidenhead,  which  is  the  history  of  the 
churches  of  Trenton.^  In  1694  the  Assanpink  was  made 
the  northern  boundary  of  the  county  of  Burlington;  and 
in  1 7 14  the  new'  county  of  Hunterdon  was  formed,  reach- 
ing from  the  Assanpink,  as  its  southern  line,  to  the  north- 
ern extremity  of  West  Jersey.  Of  this  large  and  for  the 
most  part  unsettled  territory,  now  divided  into  several  of 
the  most  populous  and  important  counties  of  the  State, 
Hopewell  and  Maidenhead  were  adjoining  townships.  It 
is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  Presbyterian  inhabitants, 
scattered  over  the  twin  townships,  were  for  some  time  de- 
pendent on  itinerant  or  missionary  preachers  for  the  oppor- 

(13) 


14  HISTORY   OF   THE 

tnnities  of  piiblic  worship,  and  that,  when  such  opportunities 
opened,  the  people  would  congreg'ate  from  long  distances 
in  schoolrooms,  or  private  houses,  or  in  the  shade  of  woods, 
in  different  neighborhoods,  as  convenience  or  some  system 
of  rotation  might  appoint.-  It  is  not  strange,  on  this  sup- 
position, that  the  names  "Hopewell"  and  "people  of  Hope- 
well," should  be  used  in  the  ecclesiastical  records  in  refer- 
ence to  different  neighborhoods,  and  even  parishes,  so  that 
after  the  lapse  of  a  century  and  a  half  it  would  not  be  pos- 
sible to  determine  in  every  instance  what  particular  locality, 
if  any,  is  designated.  The  present  churches  of  Ewing,  Pen- 
nington and  Trenton  were  in  Hopewell ;  that  of  Lawrence- 
ville  was  in  Maidenhead.  It  is  not  improbable  that  the 
Presbyterians  in  the  latter  township  were  sometimes  in- 
cluded in  the  general  reference  of  "Hopewell." 

Some  of  my  readers  may  need  to  be  reminded  of  a  New 
England  peculiarity  which  then  obtained  in  this  Province, 
and  will  still  further  account  for  the  confusion.  I  may  ex- 
plain it  in  the  words  of  Colonel  (afterwards  Governor) 
Lewis  Morris,  in  1700,  when  referring  tO'  the  "towns"  of 
East  Jersey.  "These  towns  are  not  like  the  towns  in  Eng- 
land, the  houses  built  close  together  on  a  small  spot  of 
ground,  but  they  include  large  portions  of  the  country  of 
four,  five,  eight,  ten,  twelve,  fifteen  miles  in  length,  and  as 
much  in  breadth;  and  all  the  settlements  within  such  state 
and  bounds  is  said  to  be  within  such  a  township;  but  in  most 
of  those  townships  there  is  some  place  where  a  part  of  the 
inhabitants  set  down  nearer  together  than  the  rest,  and  con- 
fine themselves  tO'  smaller  portions  of  ground,  and  the  town 
is  more  peculiarly  designed  by  that  settlement."* 

The  first  authentic  notice  of  any  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  twO'  townships  to  provide  a  permanent 
place   of   worship  is    found    in   a   deed    dated    March    18, 


"The  Papers  of  Lewis  Morris."     N.  J.  Hist.  Soc.,  1852. 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


15 


1698-9.*  In  that  instrument,  Jeremiah  Basse,  Governor 
of  East  and  West  Jersey,  and  Thomas  Revell,  "Agents  for 
the  Honorable  the  West  Jersey  Society  in  England,"  con- 
veyed one  hundred  acres  "for  the  accommodation  and  serv- 
ice of  the  inhabitants  of  the  township  of  Maidenhead, 
within  the  liberties  or  precincts  of  the  said  county  of  Bur- 
lington and  the  inhabitants  near  adjacent,  being  purchasers 
of  the  said  society's  lands  there,  for  the  erecting  of  a  meet- 
ing-house, and  for  burying-ground  and  school-house,  and 
land  suitable  for  the  same."t  The  names  of  many  of  the 
grantees  will  be  recognized  as  still  represented  in  this  region. 


Ralph  Hunt, 

John  Bainbridge  [or  Ban- 
bridge]  ,^ 
Johannes  Lawrenson, 
William  Hixon, 
John  Bryerly  [Brearley?],'* 
Samuel  Hunt, 
Theophilus  Phillips, 
Jonathan  Davis, 
Thomas  Smith, 
Jasper  Smith, 
Thomas  Coleman, 
Benjamin  Hardin, 
William  Akers, 
Robert  Lannen  [Lanning] , 
Philip  Phillips, 


Joshua  Andris  [sometimes 
Andrus  and  Andrews, 
and  Anderson], 

Samuel  Davis, 

Elnathan  Davis, 

Enoch  Andris, 

Cornelius  Andris, 

James  Price, 

John  Runion, 

Thomas  Runion, 

Hezekiah  Bonham, 

Benjamin  Maple, 

Lawrence  Updike, 

Joseph  Sackett, 

Edward  Hunt. 


The  strong  presumption  is,  that  from  the  beginning  this 
was  a  Presbyterian  congregation,  and  that  although  the  pre- 
cise year  in  which  a  church  was  erected  on  the  ground  thus 
conveyed,  cannot  be  ascertained,  the  first  house  of  worship 

*  In  this  part  of  my   researches   I   have  availed  myself   of   the   collections   kindly 
placed  at  my  disposal  by  the  Rev.  George  Hale,  pastor  of  Pennington. 
t  Recorded  Book  B.,  No.  2,  p.  635.  in  the  State  House  at  Trenton. 


i6 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


for  any  denomination  in  the  two  townships  was  that  at 
Maidenhead,  now  Lawrenceville.  John  Hart,  a  signer  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  was  baptized  b}^  the  Rev. 
Jedediah  Andrews,  at  Maidenhead,  December  31,  171 3. 
As  Edward  Hart,  his  father,  lived  in  Hopewell,  three  miles 
below  Pennington,  it  is  probable  that  there  was  a  church  at 
Maidenhead  to  which  the  child  was  taken.  There  were  ten 
baptisms  at  Maidenhead  in  April,  171 3,  which  goes  to  in- 
crease the  probability  of  a  permanent  place  of  worship 
being  there  at  that  date.     There  is  positive  evidence  of  its 


existence  three  years  later,  for  in  the  records  of  the  Court 
O'f  Sessions  for  Hunterdon  county,  dated  Tuesday,  June  5, 
1716,  is  the  entry:  "Proclamation  made  and  the  court  ad- 
journed to  the  meeting-house  in  Maidenhead  in  half  an 
hour." 

I  regret  that  I  am  not  able  to  produce  views  of  any  of 
the  original  churches.  The  engraving  here  presented  is  a 
copy  of  the  Lawrenceville  Church  as  it  now  stands,  but 
excluding  the  lecture  and  school  building,  which  stands  at 
the  extremity  of  the  front  of  the  lot,  and  excluding  also 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  17 

the  extensive  graveyard  which  surrounds  the  church.  The 
present  front  (forty-five  feet)  and  about  thirty-two  feet  of 
the  depth,  is  the  same  structure  that  was  raised  in  1764. 
The  church  was  enlarged  in  1833,  to'  the  dimensions  of 
forty-five  by  sixty  feet,  and  in  1853,  fifteen  feet  were  added 
to  the  length.  I  may  add  that  in  18 19  this  congregation 
came  into  possession  of  a  valuable  farm  and  parsonage 
devised  to  them  by  Jasper  Smith,  Esq.,  an  elder  of  the 
church. 

The  earliest  sign  of  preparation  for  a  church  in  Hope- 
well is  found  in  two  deeds  of  April  20,  1703.*  In  the  first 
of  these,  John  Hutchinson  conveyed  to  Andrew  Heath, 
Richard  Eayre,^  Abiall  Davis  and  Zebulon  Heston,  a  lot 
of  two'  acres,  in  trust.  The  second  and  concurrent  deed 
declares  the  purpose  of  the  trust.  It  is  addressed,  "To  all 
Christian  people  to  whom  these  presents  shall  come,''  and 
sets  forth  that  the  trust  is  "for  the  inhabitants  of  the  said 
township  of  Hopewell  and  their  successors  inhabiting  and 
dwelling  within  the  said  township  forever;  for  the  public 
and  common  use  and  benefit  of  the  whole  township,  for 
the  erection  and  building  of  a  public  meeting  house  there- 
on, and  also  for  a  place  of  burial,  and  for  no  other  uses, 
intents  or  purposes  whatsoever."  The  ground  thus  con- 
veyed is  within  three  miles  of  Trenton  (marked  "Old 
Church"  on  our  map),  a  short  distance  beyond  the  State 
Lunatic  Asylum.  A  church  was  erected  on  this  site  which 
seems  to  have  become  the  exclusive  property  of  Episco- 
palians,^ as  that  denomination  occupied  it  until  St. 
Michael's  Church  w'as  built  in  the  town,  and  the  congre- 
gation sold  the  ground  in  1838 — ^the  house  having  long  be- 
fore disappeared. 

It  is  probable  that  if  the  history  of  this  church  could  be 
ascertained,  it  would  read  somewhat  like  the  following 
record  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Presbytery  of  New  Bruns- 
wick, September  19,  1738: 

*  Deed  Book  AAA,  105  and  114.     State  House. 

2  pre;s 


i8  HISTORY   OF   THE 

"The  affair  of  Cranberry  concerning  the  Meeting-house  was  opened 
up  before  the  Presbytery,  wherein  it  appeared  that  the  people  of  the 
Presbyterian  and  Church  of  England  persuasion  have  a  conjunct  inter- 
est in  the  Meeting-house,  by  virtue  of  an  agreement  between  such  of 
the  Presbyterians  as  assisted  the  building  of  it,  and  their  neighbors 
of  the  Church  of  England ;  and  therefore  upon  the  proposal  of  the 
rest  of  our  persuasion  who<  are  not  willing  to  have  any  concern  with 
the  said  house  upon  that  foundation,  the  Presbytery  do  advise  and 
judge  it  most  proper  that  the  gentlemen  of  the  Church  of  England  do 
either  buy  or  sell  their  interest,  that  so  the  Presbyterians  may  all 
have  a  house  for  worship  by  themselves  alone,  and  so  that  this  whole 
body  may  be  united." 

When  St.  Michael's  Church  made  the  conveyance  of 
1838,  by  which  the  old  church  plot  was  added  to  a  sur- 
rounding- farm',  reservation  was  made  of  an  inclosure 
measuring  thirty-two  feet  by  twenty-seven,  occupied  by 
graves.  The  inclosure  is  made  by  a  stone  wall,  now  falling 
into  ruins,  and  has  the  appearance  of  having  been  designed 
for  a  family  cemetery.  The  only  gravestones  remaining 
are  those  of  Samuel  Tucker,  1789,  and  Mrs.  Tucker,  1787, 
which  will  be  described  hereafter;  one  "in  memory  of 
John,  son  of  William  and  Elizabeth  Cleayton,  who^  died 
November  6,  1757  [possibly  1737].  aged  19  years";  an- 
other of  "Ma — • —  [probably  Margaret],  the  wife  of  John 
Dagworthy.  Esq.,'^  who  died  May  16,  1729,  aged  37 
years" ;  and  a  few  more  which  cannot  be  deciphered  beyond 

"Grace  Da ,"  or  "Hend ,"  etc.     It  is  said  that  the 

widow  of  William  Trent,  whose  name  was  given  to-  the 
toAvn,  was  buried  here,  but  there  is  no  trace  of  the  grave. 

In  less  than  six  years  from  Hutchinson's  deed  to  Heath 
and  others,  the  Hopewell  Presbyterians  took  measures  for 
the  erection  of  a  church  for  themselves,  within  three  miles 
of  the  one  just  described.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the 
congregation,  which,  after  the  foundation  of  the  township 
of  Trenton  (1719-20),  was  called  the  "Trenton  First 
Church,"  but  which  now  takes  the  name  of  the  new  town- 
ship of  Ewing.     The  original  deed  was  dated  March  9, 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  19 

1709,   and   conveyed   two  acres   of   land    from   Alexander 
Lockart,  a  Scotchman,  to 

Richard  Scudder,^  Jacob  Reader,^ 

John  Burroughs,^  Cornelius  Anderson, 

Ebenezer  Prout,  John  Silerons  [or  Siferons, 
Daniel  Howell,  Severance,  Severns], 

John  Deane,  Simon  Sacket,^° 

John  Davis,  George  Farley, 

Jonathan  Davis,  Caleb  Farley, 

Enoch  Anderson,  William  Reed, 

William  Osborne,  Joseph  Sacket.^^ 

There  are  no  original  records  or  documents  to  remove 
the  obscurity  that  surrounds  the  first  action  under  this 
deed;  but  in  the  following  minute  of  the  Presbytery  of 
Philadelphia,  May  n,  1709,  Hopew^ell  may  refer  to  this 
people — perhaps  in  connection  with  those  of  what  is  now 
Pennington : 

"Ordered,  that  Mr.  [Joseph]  Smith  go  to  the  people  of  Maidenhead 
and  Hopewell,  and  confer  with  them  on  such  matters  as  shall  be 
propounded  to  him  by  them,  concerning  his  being  called  to  be  their 
minister;  and  that  Mr.  Smith  preach  to  the  people  aforesaid  on  his 
way  to  New  England,  or  return  from  it,  or  both ;  and  that  this  be  in- 
timated to  Mr.  Smith,  and  the  people  aforesaid  be  writ  to  by  Mr. 
Andrews." 

The  first  church  on  this  ground  was  built  of  logs  (1712)  ; 
this  made  room,  about  1726,  for  a  frame  building,  which 
was  used  until  1795,^^  when  one  of  brick  was  erected.  In 
1839  the  church  was  remodeled.  The  cut  represents  the 
church  of  1795  before  alteration;  and  here  I  take  the  liberty 
of  quoting  a  few  verses  from  a  poem,  written  for  the  amuse- 
ment of  her  grandchildren  by  an-  estimable  member  of  this 
church, ^^  and  prompted  by  the  destruction  of  one  of  the 
two  old  oaks  in  the  churchyard  in  1852. 


HISTORY   OF   THE 

******** 
"Two  hundred  years,  or  more,  the  storms  you  braved 
Unharmed,    while    round    your    head    the    tempest    raved. 
A  faithful  guard,  for  all  that  time,  you  kept. 
Above  the  throng  that  'neath  your  shadow  slept. 
The  wild  tornado's  breath  hath  o'er  thee  past, 
And  prostrate  on  the  earth  you  lie  at  last. 
******** 

"And  here  they  stood  when  the  forefathers  came, 
To  build  an  altar  to  their  Maker's  name. 
Men  from  afar — perchance  across  the  deep. 
This  place  they  chose  their  Sabbath  rest  to  keep. 


They  built  an  altar  of  materials  rude. 

Unhewn   the   stone,   and   roughly   dressed  the   wood, 

'Twas   blest   of   Him,   whose   promised    dwelling   place 

Is  where  His  people  meet  to  seek  His  grace. 

******* 

"Once  in  three  weeks  the  stated  pastor  came 
With  gracious  message  in  his  Master's  name, 
Reciprocated  all  the  greetings  kind. 
Rejoiced  in  health  and  peace  his  flock  to  find. 
The  morning  service  o'er,  beneath  your  shade 
They  ate  their  bread,  and  kind  inquiries  made: 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  21 

'How  fared  it  with  the  brother  pioneers, 

"What  were  their  prospects,  what  their  hopes  and  fears; 

What  news   from  home,   afar — ^beyond  the   sea — 

Fight  Hampden,  Cromwell,  still  for  liberty? 

Or  to  his  kingdom  is  King  Charles  restored? 

Has  promised,  but  again  to  break  his  word? 

Has   Scotland  sheathed  the  sword,  or  does  she  still 

For  conscience  sake  oppose  her  sovereign's  will 

Worship  the  faithful  still  in  caves  and  dens. 

In  forest  deep,  or  wild  secluded  glens? 

For  Wales  who  strikes  to  put  oppression  down? 

Who  nobly  dares  to  wear  a  martyr's  crown?' 

******** 

"One  to  the  other  thus  the  tidings  bore, 
Of  clime  and  kindred  they  would  see  no  more. 
That  duty  done,  once  more  to  praise  and  pray. 
The  church  they  entered — thus  they  spent  the  day. 

******** 

"  'Time  levels  all,'  the  old  church  passed  away. 
It  served  a  holy  purpose  in  its  day ; 
And  faithful  men  a  new  foundation  laid, 
Offerings  of  patient  toil  and  substance  made ; 
Well  wrought,  the  building  rose  by  careful  hands. 

Memorial  of  their  zeal,  the  church  now  stands. 

******** 

"Now,  many  a  mossy  stone  the  name  discloses 
Of  faithful  Reeds  and  Scudders,  Howells,  Roses, 
Reeder,    Clarke,    Hart,    Carle,    Furman,    and    the    Moores, 
Fish,  Welling,   Hendrickson,   Temples,   Greens  by  scores, 
Lanning,  Hunt,  Cook,  Burroughs,  and  Jones  and  Lott, 
And  hundreds  lie  without  a  stone  to  mark  the  spot." 
******** 

.  At  the  titriie  of  the  formation  of  this  venerable  church, 
the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  was  the  only  one  in  America, 
It  was  formed  in  1704  or  1705,  and  included  seven  min- 
isters, who  were  pastors  in  Pennsylvania,  Maryland  and 
what  is  now  Delaware.  In  1706  a  member  was  added  from 
New  Jersey.  To'  this  body  the  Presbyterians,  whether  or- 
ganized or  not  into  congregations,  or  represented  on  the 
roll,  would  naturally  look  for  counsel  and  aid,  especially 
for  the  obtaining  of  the  ordinances  of  worship.     In  Sep- 


22  '       HISTORY   OF  THE 

tember,  1710,  the  Presbytery,  writing  to  the  Presbytery  of 
Dublin  and  Synod  of  Glasgow,  in  entreaty  for  their  help 
in  furnishing  ministers,  say  that  they  have  but  twO'  con- 
gregations "in  the  Jerseys" ;  "the  number  of  our  ministers 
from  the  respective  Provinces  is  ten  in  all^ — three  from 
Maryland,  five  from  Pennsylvania  and  two  from  East  Jer- 
sey." 

Under  date  of  September  27,  171 1,  the  following  minute 
appears : 

"Upon  the  desire  of  the  people  of  Maidenhead  and  Hopewell,  signi- 
fied by  Mr.  William  Yard,  for  our  assisting  them  in  getting  a  min- 
ister, it  was  agreed  that  in  case  the  people  of  Maidenhead  and  Hope- 
well are  not  engaged  with  Mr.  Sacket,  that  they  use  all  opportunities 
they  have  for  a  speedy  supply,  and  apply  themselves  to  the  neighboring 
ministers  for  assistance  in  getting  a  minister  for  them."" 

There  is  no  further  reference  in  the  Records  of  Pres- 
bytery to  the  congregations  O'f  this  neighborhood  until 
September,  171 5,  when  Philip  Ringo  presented  a  call  from 
Maidenhead  and  Hopewell  to  Mr.  Robert  Orr,  which  was 
approved  by  Presbytery,  accepted  by  him,  and  his  ordina- 
tion appointed  for  October  20.  This  took  place  on  the  day 
specified,  when  Mr.  Orr  was  "solemnly  set  apart  to  the 
work  of  the  ministry,  by  Masters  Andrews,  Morgan,  Dick- 
inson, Evans  and  Bradner,  at  Maidenhead,  before  a  numer- 
ous assembly."* 

As  an  old  tablet,  now  in  the  wall  of  the  first  church  in 
the  city  of  Trenton,  gives  1712  as  the  year  in  which  the 
Presbyterian  church  was  "Formed,"  that  is  supposed  to 
be  the  date  when  the  parent  congregation  was  formally  or- 
ganized in  view  of  taking  possession  of  the  ground  con- 
veyed by  Lockart  in  1709.  This,  then,  would  be  one  of 
the  centers  of  Mr.  Orr's  ministry  for  Hopewell.  He  ap- 
pears to  have  resided  on  what  is  now  the  boundary  line  be- 


Letter  Book  of  Presbytery.     Printed   Records,   p.   41. 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  23 

tween  the  townships  of  Lawrence  and  Ewing*.  A  son  of 
his,  who  died  during  his  pastorate,  was  buried  in  the  Lock- 
art  g-round,  and  the  gravestone  is  visible  from  the  present 
church.  Mr.  Orr  remained  in  this  charge  nearly  four  years. 
His  name  occurs  for  the  last  time  in  ecclesiastical  records, 
in  the  minutes  of  the  Synod,  September  19,  1719,  where 
he  is  spoken  of  as  "having  at  present  no  pastoral  charge," 
and  the  usual  testimonials  were  given  to  him  and  another 
minister,  it  "being  uncertain  how  and  where  Providence 
may  dispose  of  them." 

The  age  of  the  Hopewell  church  at  Pennington^^  is  not 
precisely  known,  but  the  building  was  used  in  1725-6,  as  the 
township  records  of  March  9  of  that  year  show  that  it  was 
"agreed  upon  by  the  majority  of  the  town,  to  hold  their 
town  meetings  ensuing  at  the  new  meeting-house  by  John 
Smith's."  Smith  is  known  to  have  been  owner  of  the  land 
adjoining  the  lot  which  is  still  the  site  of  the  church.  There 
is  a  tradition  that  prior  to  the  building  of  a  church,  a  school- 
house  was  used  for  some  time,  which  stood  on  what  is  now 
the  southern  part  of  the  graveyard,  and  long  known  as  "the 
school-house  lot."  This  lot  was  conveyed  by  John  Smith 
for  the  consideration  of  ten  pounds,  to  Nathaniel  Moore, 
William  Cornwell,  John  Everitt,  Ralph  Hunt,  Jonathan 
Furman,  Reuben  Armitage  and  Stephen  Baldwin. 

The  Rev.  Robert  Orr  was  followed  in  the  Hopewell 
charge  by  the  Rev.  MosES  Dickinson,  a  younger  brother 
of  the  first  president  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  and  a 
graduate  of  Yale  when  the  whole  senior  class  numbered 
but  five,  all  of  whom  entered  the  ministry.  This  was  in 
17 1 7,  the  year  in  which  the  college  was  removed  from 
Saybrook  to  New  Haven.  The  history  of  Mr.  Dickinson's 
Presbyterial  connection  cannot  be  given,  as  the  records  of 
that  period  are  not  extant;  but  according  to  the  minutes 
of  the  Synod  he  attended  the  sessions  of  that  body  in  1722, 
1724   and    1725.      Among   the    delegates    of   those    three 


24  HISTORY   OP   THE 

years  appears  the  name  of  Enoch  A'rmitage,  who  was  a 
ruHng-  elder  of  Hopewell.  Mr.  Dickinson  removed  to  the 
Congregational  Church  of  Norwalk,  Connecticut,  in  1727, 
and  continued  to  be  its  pastor  until  his  death,  May  i,  1778, 
in  the  83d  year  of  his  age,  and  51st  of  his  ministry.  In 
his  seventieth  year  he  took  a  colleague  from  the  Presbytery 
of  New  Brunswick,  the  Rev.  William  Tennent,  Jr.  There 
are  two  printed  sermons  of  Mr.  Dickinson's:  one  of  them 
was  preached  at  the  ordination  of  the  Rev.  Elisha  Kent, 
grandfather  of  the  distinguished  Chancellor  of  New  York. 

Mr.  Armitage,  who  was  a  native  of  Yorkshire  in  Eng- 
land, was  an  active  elder.  He  officiated  in  Hopewell  when 
no  minister  was  present,  not  only  in  reading  "the  works  of 
approved  divines,"  as  our  elders  and  deacons  are  author- 
ized tO'  do'  in  such  an  emergency,  but  occasionally  reading 
his  own  compositions.  The  Rev.  Mr.  Hale  has  in  his  pos- 
session a  manuscript  of  the  usual  length  of  a  sermon,  in 
the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Armitage,  headed,  "Some  Medita- 
tions 'Upon  the  15th,  1 6th  and  17th  verses  of  the  27th 
chapter  of  Numbers,  occasioned  by  the  removal  of  Mr. 
Dickinson,  and  delivered  at  Hopewell  meeting-house  by 
E.  A.,  1727."  The  text  of  the  "meditations"  is:  "And 
Moses  spoke  unto  the  Lord,  saying,  Let  the  Lord,  the  God 
of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh,  set  a  man  over  the  congregation, 
which  may  go  out  before  them,  and  which  may  go  in  be- 
fore them,  and  which  may  lead  them  out,  and  which  may 
bring  them  in :  that  the  congregation  of  the  Lord  be  not  as 
sheep  which  have  no  shepherd." 

The  discourse  opens  in  these  modest  terms : 

"Beloved  Friends:  I  having  no  book  of  any  subject  suitable  to  the 
present  outward  circumstances  of  the  congregation,  and  being  some- 
thing more  than  ordinarily  affected  with  our  present  desolate  condition, 
I  thought  meet  to  deliver  my  own  meditations  on  the  forementioned 
subject,  though  I  know  not  whether  they  will  be  of  any  use  to  you, 
or  meet  with  acceptance  from  you;  yet  hoping  they  may  at  least  do 
no  harm  to  any,  and  presuming  on  your  favorable  construction,  and 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  25 

being  encouraged  by  your  kind  acceptance  of  what  I  have  been  enabled 
to  do  in  your  service,  since  Divine  Providence  cast  my  lot  amongst 
you,  I  therefore  humbly  proceed  to  deliver  my  meditations  on  these 
words." 

I  quote  the  annexed  paragraph  from  the  Meditations 
for  the  sake  of  the  intimation  it  contains  that  there  was 
more  than  one  place  of  worship  within  reach  of  the  people 
of  Hopewell — the  reference  being"  probably  to-  Maidenhead ; 
Mr.  Armitage's  farm  was  within  a  mile  of  Pennington. 

"Now  this  being  the  case  of  this  congregation,  we  are  as  sheep  that 
have  no  shepherd  by  the  removal  of  our  minister  from  us :  and  whether 
the  same  Providence  that  removed  him,  notwithstanding  all  our  en- 
deavors to  the  contrary,  will  permit  his  return,  as  some  hope,  I  know 
not :  but  as  however  that  may  be,  as  affairs  now  stand,  it  seems  likely 
that  some  part  of  the  congregation  will  be  as  sheep  that  have  no 
shepherd,  therefore  I  hope,"  etc. 

Mr,  Dickinson  was  followed  in  1729  by  the  Rev.  Joseph 
Morgan.  He  is  supposed  to  have  come  from  Wales,  but 
was  educated  at  Yale,  and  was  one  of  the  six  first  gradu- 
ates in  1702.  President  Woolsey,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Hale, 
remarks  that  "some  interest  is  attached  to  Mr.  Morgan 
from  the  fact  that  he  was  not  only  one  of  the  members 
of  the  first  class  in  Yale  College,  but  also  the  only  one  of 
the  class  who  did  not  also  take  his  degree  at  Harvard,, 
that  is,  the  only  one  veritably  educated  at  Yale  alone."* 
He  came  into  New  Jersey  from  Greenwich,  Connecticut,  in 
1 710,  and  was  pastor  at  Freehold  from  that  time  until 
called  to  the  united  congregations  of  Hopewell  and  Maidn 
enhead. 

In  the  "Presbyterian  Magazine"  of  November,  1857,  is 
preserved  a  long  letter  from  Morgan  to  Dr.  Cotton  Mather, 
written  at  Freehold  in  September,   1721.     It  is  wholly  in 


*  Mr.  Morgan  was  never  an  undergraduate  of  Yale  College.  He  received  an 
honorary  degree  in  1719.  See  letter  of  Prof.  Dexter,  of  Yale  University,  quoted 
by  Judge  Lanning  in  "Sketch  of  Ewing  Presbyterian  Church,"  Journal  of  Presbyt. 
Hist.  Soc,  Vol.  VI.,  No.  5,  p.   173. 


26  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Latin,  and  in  such  Latin  as  might  be  expected  from  the 
circumstances  it  describes.  "For,"  he  says,  "I  spent  only- 
three  years  in  the  study  of  languages  and  the  arts,  and  for 
twenty-five  years  I  have  labored  almost  constantly  with  my 
hands.  A  Latin,  Greek  or  Hebrew  book  I  have  sometimes 
not  had  in  my  hands  for  a  whole  year.  I  have  scarcely 
any  books :  possess  no  dictionary  but  an  imperfect  Rider. 
I  have  no  commentaries,  nor  theological  systems  nor  his- 
tories. I  have  nO'  leisure  for  reading,  nor  for  writing  dis- 
courses for  the  church,  and  often  know  not  my  text  before 
the  Sabbath."  The  letter  is  chiefly  in  reference  to  some 
physical  and  metaphysical  arguments  against  Deists, 
Socinians  and  other  heretics,  which  Morgan  had  sent  to 
Mather  some  months  before,  but  which  had  not  been  ac- 
knowledged. He  incidentally  mentions  that  "in  Hopewell 
and  Maidenhead,  thirty  miles  distant,  where  the  Rev. 
Moses  Dickinson  preaches,  there  is  a  great  increase  of  the 
church." 

Whether  there  were  any  unfavorable  rumors  in  regard 
to  Mr.  Morgan  when  he  came  from:  New  England,  is  not 
certain ;  but  he  seems  to  have  been  received  by  the  Presby- 
tery with  some  caution.  On  the  21st  September,  17 10, 
a  committee  was  appointed  "to  inquire  into  Mr.  Morgan's 
and  [Paulus]  Van  Vleck's  affair,  and  prepare  it  for  the 
Presbytery."  In  the  afternoon  the  committee  reported  on 
"Mr.  Morgan's  case,"  and  "after  debating  thereon,"  he 
was  admitted  to  the  Presbytery.  There  was  "serious  de- 
bating" upon  Van  Vleck's  case  before  he  was  received. 
Within  two  years  Van  Vleck  (who'  was  settled  with  the 
Dutch  Presbyterian  congregation  at  Neshaminy),  was 
found  guilty  of  bigamy  and  other  offenses.  Mr.  Morgan's 
irregularities  begin  to  be  noticed  in  171 6,  when  his  "ab- 
sence this  and  several  years  by-past  being  inquired  into,  it 
was  resolved  that  a  letter  should  be  writ,  informing  him 
that  if  he  comes  not,  nor  sends  sufficient  reasons  against 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  27 

next  year,  we  shall  take  it  for  granted  that  he  has  alto- 
gether deserted  us."  It  was  at  this  session  that  the  Presby- 
tery of  Philadelphia  divided  itself  into  three  (Philadelphia, 
New  Castle  and  Long  Island),  and  formed  the  Synod  of 
Philadelphia,  and  there  being  no'  minutes  of  the  Presby- 
tery extant  after  17 16  until  1733,  the  further  history  of 
this  part  of  Morgan's  delinquency  is  not  traceable.  He 
appeared  at  Synod  in  17 17,  and  was  a  punctual  and  active 
attendant  for  several  years.  In  1728  "divers  papers  of 
complaint"  against  him  were  presented  to'  the  Synod  by 
some  members  of  his  church.  Of  the  seven  charges  one 
related  to  astrological  experiments,  another  tO'  dancing  and 
a  third  to  intemperance.  The  Synod  judged  that,  though 
Mr.  Morgan  may  have  been  imprudent  in  some  particulars, 
the  accusations  proceeded  from  a  "captious  and  querulous 
spirit" ;  and  as  to  the  charge  oi  intemperance,  "it  appears 
to  the  Synod  to  be  a  groundless  prosecution  against  one 
who  has  ever  been  esteemed  a  temperate  man."  But  on 
this  head  the  Synod  were  probably  too^  charitable,  as  in 
1736,  when  Morgan  had  been  settled  in  Hopewell  for 
some  seven  years,  he  was  tried  by  the  Presbytery  and 
found  guilty  of  intemperance  and  suspended.  A  reference 
from  the  Presbytery  to  the  Synod  in  May,  1737,  led  to 
the  directing  oi  the  Presbyteries  of  Philadelphia  and  East 
Jersey^^  to  meet  as  a  committee  at  Maidenhead  in  August, 
and  review  the  case.  After  this  resolution  was  adopted,  a 
paper  was  presented  by  Enoch  Armitage,  the  preacher  of 
the  "Meditations,"  "signed  by  many  hands  of  the  congre- 
gations of  Hopewell  and  Maidenhead,  requesting  that 
since  Mr.  Morgan  is  not  likely  tO'  be  useful  any  more  as  a 
minister  among  them,  from  his  repeated  miscarriages,  if 
the  Synod  should  see  cause  to  restore  him  to  his  ministry, 
he  might  not  be  reinstated  as  their  minister."  Upon  this 
the  Synod  came  to  the  decision:  "That  the  people  of  Hope- 
well and  Maidenhead  be  left  at  their  liberty  to  entertain 


28  HISTORY  OF  THE 

Mr.  Morgan  as  their  pastor  or  not.  even  supposing-  the 
committee  appointed  tO'  meet  on  his  affair  in  August,  should 
see  cause  to  restore  him  to  the  ministry;  only  the  Synod 
enjoins  the  people  to  pay  to  Mr.  Morgan  what  arrears  are 
due  to  him  for  time  past."*  The  committee  left  him  under 
suspension,  which  continued  until  1738,  when  the  Presby- 
tery restored  him,  but  his  name  is  not  found  again  on  the 
records  as  present  after  1739. 

During  Mr.  Morgan's  pastorate — 1 729-1 736 — his  resi- 
dence was  near  Maidenhead  church.  In  the  course  of  that 
time  the  people  of  Hopewell  opened  a  subscription  for  the 
purchase  of  a  parsonage,  or,  as  they  expressed  it,  "a  planta- 
tion to  be  a  dwelling-place  at  all  times"  for  the  minister  of 
"the  Presbyterian  society  in  that  town"  [township].  If 
the  subscription  should  admit  of  it,  a  Latin  school  was  to 
be  founded  on  the  plantation.  Mr.  Hale,  from  whose  col- 
lections I  obtain  these  facts,  thinks  it  "probable  that  this 
resulted  in  the  purchase  of  the  parsonage-farm  on  the  west 
side  of  the  Scotch  road,  where  for  so  many  years  resided 
the  Rev.  John  Guild  and  the  Rev.  Joseph  Rue,  successively 
pastors  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Hopewell  at 
Pennington." 

As  names^^  help  to  identify  localities,  and  preserve  other 
historical  traces,  I  subjoin  a  list  of  the  subscribers  to  the 
parsonage : 

Timothy  Titus,  Edmund  Palmer, 

Williami  Lawrence,  Alexander  Scott, 

Thomas  Burrowes,  Jr.,  Edward  Hunt, 

John  Branes,  Thomas  Hendrick, 

Cornelius  Anderson,  Robert  Akers, 

Benjamin  Severance,  Peter  La  Rue, 

Francis  Vannoy,  John  Fidler, 

Jonathan  Moore,  Andrew  Milbourn, 


•  Records   of   the   Presb.    Church.      The   minutes   of  the   committee   are   inserted 
under  the  date  of  the  Synod's  session  of  May  24,   1738. 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


29 


Roger  Woolverton, 
Benjamin  Wilcocks, 
Johannes  Hendrickson, 
Henry  Oxley, 
Roger  Parke, 
John  Parke, 
Ralph  Hunt, 
Joseph  Hart, 
Abraham  Anderson, 
Bartholomew  Anderson, 
Joseph  Price, 
Ephraim  Titus, 
Robert  Blackwell, 
Ralph  Hunt,  Jr., 


Richard  Bryant, 
Jonathan  Stout, 
Jonas  Wood, 
Thomas  Read, 
John  Hunt, 
Jonathan  Furman, 
Samuel  Furman, 
John  Carpenter, 
Samuel  Hunt, 
Nathaniel  Moore, 
George  Woolsey, 
Jonathan  Wright, 
Caleb  Carman, 
Elnathan  Baldwin. 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  Trenton  Church  :    The  Rev.  David  Coweee. 
1714— 1738. 

Heretofore  the  principal  settlements  of  Hopewell  were 
at  some  distance  from  the  "Falls  of  the  Delaware."  But 
now  the  enterprise  of  William  Trent  opened  the  way  for  the 
secular  and  ecclesiastical  progress  of  the  township  in  an- 
other direction.  Mr.  Trent  had  come  to  Pennsylvania  from 
Inverness,  in  Scotland,  but  belonged  to  the  Church  of 
England.  He  was  a  merchant  in  Philadelphia,  and,  not- 
withstanding his  unprofessional  occupation,  was  for  many 
years  a  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State,  and 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Assembly,  and  withal  is  called 
^'Colonel."!  Mr.  Trent,  in  1714,  bought  Mahlon  Stacy's 
tract  of  eight  hundred  acres,  on  both  sides  of  the  Assanpink 
creek,  and  some  time  afterwards  removed  his  residence 
thither.  He  soon  fell  into  the  same  lines  of  public  life 
which  he  had  left  in  the  sister  province,  for  he  represented 
Burlington  county  in  the  Legislature  of  1721 ;  was  Speaker 
in  1723;  and  in  the  same  year  was  appointed  Chief  Justice 
of  the  Supreme  Court.  He  died,  however,  in  the  first  year 
of  his  ofiice,  December  25,  1724. 

That  "Trent's-town,"  or  "Trent-town,"  was  growing  to 
a  respectable  condition  is  indicated  by  the  direction  of  the 
Governor  in  17 19,  that  the  county  courts  should  be  held 
here,  and  it  became  the  seat  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  1724. 
As  the  population  thickened,  the  convenience  of  the  people 
would  call  for  a  church  within  reach  of  a  walk;  and  it  is 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  before  the  time  had  come  for 
building  a  new  church  the  Presbyterians  in  and  near  the 

(31) 


32  HISTORY   OF   THE 

town  would  hold  religious  meetings  there,  and  might  even 
erect  some  temporary  structure  which  would  afterwards  be 
properly  regarded  as  the  foundation  of  the  new  church.  In 
tracing  the  deeds  of  the  lot  now  occupied  by  the  State-street 
church,  there  is  an  appearance  of  its  having  been  long  de- 
signed, if  not  partially  used,  for  church  purposes.  In  May, 
1684,  Mahlon  Stacy ^  conveyed  to  Hugh  Standeland  sixty 
acres  on  the  north  side  of  the  Assanpink.  His  heir-at-law,, 
in  1707,  conveyed  to  Joshua  Anderson  one-fifth  of  the  same. 
This  fifth,  or  twelve  acres,  Anderson,  in  November,  1722, 
co^nveyed  to  Enoch  Andrus.  On  April  10,  1727,  Andrus 
conveyed  a  portion  of  his  lot — one  hundred  and  fifty  feet 
square — for  the  nominal  sum  of  five  shillings,  to 

John  Porterfield,  William  Yard, 

Daniel  Howell,  William  Hofif, 

Richard  Scudder,  John  Severns, 

Alexander  Lockart,  Joseph  Yard.^ 

The  witnesses  to  the  conveyance  are  John  Anderson,  Francis 
Gifiing  and  Daniel  Howell,  junior. 

Now,  Enoch  Andrus  was  one  of  the  trustees  in  the  deed 
of  Basse  and  Revell  of  1698-9  for  the  Maidenhead  church; 
five  of  his  eight  grantees  were  signers  of  the  call  of  the  first 
pastor  of  the  town  church  in  1736,  which  they  subscribe  as 
"inhabitants  of  Trenton  belonging  to  the  Presbyterian  con- 
gregation" ;  Joshua  Anderson  was  an  active  Presbyterian,, 
living  near  the  town ;  Lockart  was  the  grantor,  Scudder  and 
Howell  were  among  the  grantees  of  the  country  church. 
All  this  looks  as  if  a  church  plot  in  town  may  have  been 
long  in  view,  although  no  specific  object  is  mentioned  in  the 
conveyances.  This,  indeed,  does  not  appear  in  the  deeds 
until  August  24,  1763,  when  Joseph  Yard,  sole  survivor  of 
the  joint  tenants,  conveys  the  same  lot  to  "the  Trustees  of 
the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Trenton,  for  the  special  uses 
and  trust  following,  that  is  to  say,  to  be  and  remain  forever 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  33 

for  the  use  of  public  worship  and  as  a  burial  place  for  the 
Presbyterian  congregation  of  Trenton  forever."^  The  joint 
tenancy  was  undoubtedly  for  the  purpose  of  holding  the  lot 
for  the   congregation,   which   was   not   incorporated   until 

1756. 

Another  portion  of  the  lot  was  purchased  in  1759.  A 
deed  of  July  23,  of  that  year,  from  Moore  Furman,  Sheriff 
of  Hunterdon,  conveyed  to  the  Trustees  a  lot  described  as 
follows : 

"Being  lot  No.  3,  beginning  at  the  corner  of  the  Presbyterian  Meet- 
ing-house lot  of  land  on  the  north  side  of  the  street  or  road  that  leads 
towards  the  old  iron  works,  and  from  thence  runs  along  the  line  of 
the  said  meeting-house  lot  north  three  degrees  west,  2  chains  and  14 
links  to  the  land  of  William  Morris,  Esq.,  and  from  thence  runs  along 
his  line  N.  87°  E.  one  chain,  23  links  to  a  post,  being  a  corner  of  lot 
No.  4;  and  from  thence  runs  along  the  line  of  the  same  S.  3°  E.,  two 
chains  and  14  links  to  the  aforesaid  street  or  road,  and  from  along  the 
same  one  chain  and  23  links  to  the  first  mentioned  corner  or  place  of 
beginning." 

This  part  of  the  present  grounds  was  bought  for  ten 
pounds  proclamation  money,  being  sold  under  execution,  at 
the  suit  of  James  Hazard  and  Richard  Alsop,  Executors  of 
Nathaniel  Hazard,  against  Benjamin  Stevenson,  Executor 
of  Enoch  Anderson.^  The  trustees  took  it  "for  the  use  and 
benefit  of  the  said  Presbyterian  Church  of  Trenton,  to  bury 
their  dead  in,  and  for  other  public  uses  of  the  said  Church." 

From  this  it  appears  that  the  purchase  of  1759  was  of  a 
lot  about  eighty  feet  front;  making,  with  the  lot  of  1727, 
a  front  of  two  hundred  and  thirty-one  feet. 

The  present  dimensions  of  the  lot,  as  surveyed  in  1840, 
are : 

South  line  (the  front),  247  feet  9  in. 
North    "  241    " 

East      "  142    " 

West     "  126    " 

3    PRES 


34  HISTORY    OF   THE 

Over  one  of  the  doors  of  the  church  is  a  marble  tablet, 
thus  inscribed : 

"PRESBYTERIAN 

CHURCH. 

Formed  1712, 

BunT  1726, 

Rebuilt   1805." 

This  memorial  was  transferred  to  its  present  place,  from 
the  brick  church  taken  down  in  1805 ;  and  the  first  two 
dates  were  copied  from  a  similar  inscription  found  in  the 
stone  building  which  preceded  the  brick.  The  date  of  17 12 
is  presumed  to  apply  to  the  organization  of  the  country 
church.  There  is  more  difference  of  opinion  about  the 
second  line — some  supposing  it  to  be  the  date  of  the  frame 
church  on  Lockart's  ground,  which  superseded  the  log 
building  first  erected.  But  while  the  matter  is  not  certain, 
the  weight  of  probability  appears  to  be  in  favor  of  the 
supposition  that  some  kind  of  building  was  erected  on  the 
Andrus  ground  a  year  before  he  made  the  formal  convey- 
ance of  1727,  and  that  this  is  the  explanation  ol  "Built 
1726." 

I  am  strengthened  in  this  conclusion  by  finding  that  sixty- 
six  years  agO'  the  tradition  of  the  day  was  to  the  same  effect. 
In  a  note  prepared  April  25,  1792,  by  the  Rev.  James  F. 
Armstrong,  in  compliance  with  the  call  of  the  General 
Assembly  for  historical  documents,  and  in  which  he  refers 
to  "Mr.  Chambers  and  Mr.  Benjamin  Yard,"  as  his  author- 
ities, in  this  statement: 

"The  first  Presbyterian  congregation  in  the  county  of  Hunterdon 
was  formed  in  the  township  of  Trenton,  and  the  church  called  the 
Old  House  was  built  about  the  year  1712,  where  the  Rev.  Robert  Orr, 
a  Scotsman,  preached  part  of  his  time  during  three  or  four  years ;  the 
remainder  of  his  time  he  preached  at  Maidenhead,  where  a  church 
was  built  about  the  year  1716.  *  *  *  f^g  congregation  of  Trenton, 
in  or  about  the  year  1726,  built  a  church  in  the  village  of  Trenton,  not 
as  a  different  congregation,  but  for  the  convenience  of  that  part  of 
congregation  in  and  near  the  town." 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH. 


35 


In  this  place  may  be  appropriately  inserted  a  description 
of  the  original  town  church,  furnished  for  this  volume  by 
my  lamented  friend  and  fellow  elder,  Francis  Armstrong 
Ewing,  M.  D.,  whose  departure  from  this  life  before  the 
publication,  will  call  upon  me  to  introduce  his  name  and 
character  more  fully  in  a  later  chapter.  The  engraving  is 
taken  from  a  drawing  made  by  Dr.  Ewing  from  the  descrip- 
tions of  those  W'ho  remembered  the  first  church. 


THE  OLD   STONE   CHURCH. 


''The  old  stone  church,  built  in  1726 — the  first  of  the 
series — stood  on  the  southwest  corner  of  the  church  lot, 
on  the  same  site  as  its  successor,  the  brick  one,  but  not 
covering  so  large  a  space.  It  fronted  south  on  Second 
street  (now  State),  standing  a  little  back  from  the  line  of 
the  street,  and  having  a  large  flat  stone  before  the  door. 
Its  front  presented  in  the  center  a  large  doorway,  closed 
by  two  half-doors,  on  each  side  of  which  w^as  a  pretty  large 
window,  square-headed,  as  was  the  door ;  and  probably  over 


36  HISTORY   OF  THE 

the  door  another  window,  though  on  this  point  there  is  a 
difference  of  recollection.     The  stones  of  the  building-,  free 
of  wash  or  plaster,  sho\ved  only  their  native  hue,  or  that 
acquired  by  long  exposure  to  the  weather.     The  roof,  with 
g-ables  to  the  street,  was  of  the  curb  or  double-pitched  kind, 
and  was  covered   with   shingles,   each   neatly   rounded   or 
scalloped.     Entering  the  front  door,  a  middle  aisle,  floored 
with  wood,  led  towards  the  pulpit,  which  was  at  the  opposite 
or  north  end.     The  first  object  reached  was  a  settle,  occu- 
pied during  service  by  the  sexton.     Raised  one  step  from 
the  floor  was  an  inclosed  space  with  desk  in  front,  where 
stood  the  minister  while  administering  the  sacraments  or 
hearing  the  catechism.     Behind  and  above  was  the  pulpit, 
of  wood,  unpainted,  as  was  all  the  woodwork  in  the  build- 
ing, except  the  ceiling,  having  a  soundboard  over  it,  fast- 
ened against  the  rear  wall.     In  this  wall,  on  each  side  of 
the  pulpit,  was  a  window  corresponding  to  those  in  front. 
The  pulpit  stairs  rose  from  the  pastor's  pew,  which  was 
against  the  rear  wall  on  the  east  side  of  the  pulpit.     A  gal- 
lery ran  around  the  front  and  two-  sides,  the  stairs  to  which 
rose  in  the  front  corners.    Between  the  front  door  and  these 
corner  stairs  were  two  square  pews  on  each  side,  of  unequal 
size,  over  the  one  of  which,  nearest  the  stairs,  was  one  of 
the  front  windows.     Before  these  pews  was  a  cross-aisle, 
leading  to-  the  stairs  and  tO'  the  side-aisles.     These  were 
narrower  than  the  middle  one,  and  led  to  the  north  wall. 
All  the  pews  against  the  walls  were  square,  and,  like  all 
the  others,  had  the  usual  high,  straight  backs  of  the  time. 
Sitting  in  church  was  not  then  the  easy,  cushioned  affair 
of  modern  days.     Two  square  pews  against  the  rear  wall ; 
four  on  each  side,  the  fourth  from  the  front  being  in  the 
corner,  and  the  four  on  the  front  completed  the  number  of 
fourteen.     The  rest  of  the  floor  was  occupied  by  narrow 
pews  or  slips,  opening  into  the  side  and  middle  aisles.     The 
ceiling  was  wooden,  curved  in  four  ways  (the  lines  of  junc- 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH.  ^ 

tion  rising  from  the  corners),  and  painted  in  a  sort  of 
clouded  style,  blue  and  white,  intended  to  represent  the  sky 
and  clouds,  if  the  childish  impressions  of  one  of  my  in- 
formants have  not  thus  mistaken  the  mottled  results  of 
time  and  dampness. 

"While  the  old  church  was  standing,  there  was  a  tradi- 
tion that  there  was  a  vault  under  the  building,  but  it  was 
not  known  where.  When  the  house  was  taken  down  the 
vault  was  discovered,  containing  twO'  coffins  with  plates, 
and  other  evidences  that  the  bodies  were  those  of  persons 
of  standing  and  importance.  In  the  brick  church,  in  the 
floor  within  the  railing  before  the  pulpit,  was  a  trap  door, 
which  was  said  to  lead  to  this  vault.  The  vault  was  cov- 
ered over  when  the  present  church  was  built,  and  is  em- 
braced in  one  of  the  burial  lots  in  the  space  where  the  old 
house  stood.* 

"The  old  church  was  rich  enough  to  own  a  bier,  which, 
except  during  service  and  when  not  in  use,  was  kept  in 
the  middle  aisle.  There  was  no  pulpit  Bible ;  the  pastor's 
family  Bible  supplied  its  place,  being  taken  to  church  in 
the  morning  and  carried  back  after  the  afternoon  service. 
This  return  being  once  neglected,  and  the  book  being  needed 
in  the  evening,  'Black  George,'  the  minister's  boy,  was  sent 
to  bring  it.  After  a  long  absence  he  came  running  back, 
alarmed  and  agitated,  saying  he  had  stumbled  over  the 
*pall-bearers,'  meaning  the  bier.  There  was  seldom  service 
in  the  evening,  and  no  provision  for  it;  when  needed,  two 
large  brass  candlesticks,  belonging  to  the  pastor's  wife, 
were  put  in  requisition  to  enlighten  and  decorate  the  pulpit. 

"In  the  yard  behind  the  church  stood  a  fine  apple  tree, 
much  resorted  to  for  its  shade,  its  blossoms,  and  its  fruit, 
by  the  children  from  the  school-house,  which  was  on  the 
eastern  part  of  the  same  lot.  This  school  was  taught  by 
Mr.  Nicholas  Dubois,  who  united  in  himself  the  offices  of 


The  mystery  of  the  vault  will  be  explained  in  a  later  chapter. 


38  HISTORY   OF  THE 

elder,  teacher  and  chorister;  in  which  last  capacity  he  had 
a  place  with  his  choir  in  the  gallery. 

"In  the  pews  of  the  old  church  I  have  described,  were 
gathered  every  Sabbath,  to  listen  to  the  preachers  of  the 
olden  time,  the  principal  families  of  that  day.  Of  these 
a  few  relics  still  linger  among  us,  treasuring  up  the  memory 
of  others;  while  even  the  names  of  most  of  them  are  al- 
most unknown  to  our  present  people.  There  were  Hunt 
and  Milnor,  the  leading  merchants  of  their  time,  whose 
names  were  for  many  years  attached  tO'  the  comers  they 
respectively  occupied  (now  Norcross'  and  Britton's).  There 
was  Leake,  learned  in  the  law,  but  of  extreme  simplicity 
and  guilelessness ;  Smith,  eminent  as  a  physician  and  judge; 
Belleville,  from  France,  at  the  head  of  the  medical  profes- 
sion, and  esteemed  by  the  highest  authorities  in  the  neigh- 
boring cities;  the  elder,  Judge  Ewing;  and  besides  these, 
the  Gordons,  Ryalls,  Haydens,  Calhouns,  Yards,  Moores, 
Collins,  Chambers,  Woolseys  and  others  whose  names  and 
memories  have  nearly  passed  away.  In  another  place  will 
be  found  the  names  of  eminent  preachers,  whose  voice  at 
times  filled  the  old  house. 

"But  all  things  come  to  an  end,  and  so  did  the  old  stone 
church.  Having  stood  for  nearly  eighty  years  witnessing 
the  growth  of  the  town  almost  from  its  beginning,  and  the 
stirring  events  of  the  Revolution,  it  was  at  length  taken 
down  in  the  year  1804,  to  make  room  for  its  successor.  On 
the  last  Sabbath  before  its  destruction,  besides  the  installa- 
tion of  two  new  elders,  the  communion  was  administered.. 
The  solemnities  of  that  occasion  must  have  been  deeply 
impressive,  for  the  language  and  manner  of  the  pastor,  and, 
indeed,  the  whole  scene,  are  still  spoken  of,  by  some  who 
were  present,  with  strong  emotion." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Armstrong's  memorandum,  already  quoted, 
proceeds  to  say:  "After  the  founding  of  the  two  places  of 
worship  in  the  township  of  Trenton,  Messrs.  Hubbard,  Wil- 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  39 

son  and  Morgan,  unsettled  ministers,  preached  in  succession 
at  Trenton  and  the  old  house;  but  their  first  settled  pastor 
was  the  Rev.  David  Cowell."  Morgan  has  already  been 
mentioned  in  connection  with  the  other  Hopewell  churches 
and  with  Maidenhead.  Of  Hubbard  and  Wilson,  the  date 
and  duration  of  their  ministries,  nothing  is  known  beyond 
Mr.  Armstrong's  record.  It  has  been  suggested  to  me  that 
the  first-named  person  may  have  been  the  Rev.  Jonathan 
Hubbard  (the  family  name  is  sometimes  spelled  Hobart), 
of  Connecticut,  who  graduated  at  Yale  in  1724,  and  died  in 
1765.  He  was  a  fellow  collegian  and  townsman  of  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Richard  Treat,  of  Abington,  Pennsylvania.  Dr.  Treat 
was  at  the  Synod  of  1733,  when  the  Trenton  people  applied 
for  supplies,  and  the  conjecture  is  that  he  may  have  obtained 
the  services  of  Mr.  Hubbard,  who  about  that  time  discon- 
tinued his  connection  with  the  church  of  Eastbury,  Con- 
necticut.*'. 

There  was  a  Rev.  John  Wilson,  who,  on  September  19, 
1729,  according  to  the  minutes  of  the  Synod  of  Philadel- 
phia under  that  date,  "coming  providentially  into  these 
parts,  signifying  his  desire  of  being  admitted  as  a  member 
of  the  Synod,  his  credentials  being  read,  and  the  Synod 
satisfied  therewith,  was  unanimously  received."  He  was 
afterwards  employed  at  Newcastle,  where  some  misunder- 
standing arose  between  his  congregation  and  the  Presby- 
tery, which  was  referred  to  the  Synod  (September  18, 
1730),  who  "judged  that,  as  far  as  things  appear  to  us,  they 
(the  Presb3^tery)  are  not  chargeable  with  any  severity  to 
him,  but  the  contrary."  There  was  another  Rev.  John  Wil- 
son, a  Presbyterian  pastor  in  Chester,  New  Hampshire,  in 
1734,  who  died  there  in  1779,  aged  seventy-six,  and  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  a  son  of  the  first  named.*  One  of  these 
may  have  been  the  Trenton  supply. 


Webster,   p.   405. 


40  HISTORY   OF   THE 

The  township  of  Trenton  was  set  off  from  Hopewell  by 
the  Hunterdon  County  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions  in  March, 
1719-20.  The  new  township  included  the  country  (now 
Ewing)  and  town  churches,  so  that  the  name  of  Hopewell 
did  not  properly  apply  to  either  of  the  parts  of  the  joint  con- 
gregation after  that  date,  although  from  habit  the  term  may 
have  continued  to  be  used,  especially  of  the  country  church. 
The  call  of  the  Rev.  David  Cowell  was  made  on  behalf  of 
the  united  Trenton  church.  The  original  document,  in  its 
ample  sheet,  and  well  engrossed  by  a  clerkly  hand,  is  before 
me,  and  runs  as  follows  :* 

"Whereas  we,  the  subscribers,  inhabitants  of  Trenton,  belonging  to 
the  Presbyterian  congregation,  being  desirous  to  settle  a  Gospel  min- 
istry amongst  us,  and  having  had  the  experience  of  the  ministerial 
abilities,  and  the  blameless  life  and  conversation  of  the  Reverend  Mr. 
David  Cowell,  do  hereby  unanimously  call  and  desire  him  to  settle 
amongst  us,  and  to  take  the  charge  of  this  congregation  as  their  min- 
ister. And  we,  the  said  subscribers,  do  hereby  promise  and  oblige  our- 
selves to  support  the  said  Mr.  Cowell  with  a  maintenance,  and  other- 
wise to  assist  him  as  we  may  to  discharge  his  ministerial  function 
amongst  us;  as  witness  our  hands  the  seventh  day  of  April,  1736. 

Joseph  Higbee,  Joseph  Jones, 

William  Hofif,  Isaac  Joens, 

WiUiam   Worslee,  David    Howell, 

William  Reed,  Robert  Lanning, 

Jonathan    Furman,  Joseph  Green, 

William  Lartmoor,  William   Green, 

Richard  Furman,  Francis   Giffing, 

Jacob  Anderson,  Samuel    Hooker, 

Isaac  Reeder,  John  Scudder, 

John    Porterfield,  Henry  Bellergeau, 

William  Yard,  Andrew   Reed, 

Richard   Scudder,  Ralph   Smith, 

Ralph   Hart,  Arthur  Howell, 

Charles   Clark,  Peter  Lett, 

Cornelius  Ringo,  James  Bell,  Jr., 

Samuel    Johnson,  EHakim    Anderson, 

Joseph   Yard,  William    Yard,    Jr., 


*  For  this  and  other  papers  I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  John  V.   Cowell,  elder  of  the 
Central  Church,  Philadelphia,  who  is  a  great-nephew  of  our  pastor. 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  41 

Ebenezer    Prout,  Neal  W.  Leviston, 

Clotworthy   Reed,  John  Osburn, 

Christopher   J.    Cowell,  Daniel    Bellergeau, 

Richard   Green,  William    Peirson, 

David  Dunbar." 

On  the  call  is  this  indorsement : 

"Trenton,  April  the  7th,  1736.  The  following  persons,  viz.,  Richard 
Scudder,  Ralph  Hart,  Charles  Clark,  Samuel  Johnson,  Cornelius  Ringo, 
and  Joseph  Yard,  were  appointed  by  the  Presbyterian  congregation 
present  at  Trenton  the  day  above,  to  be  a  committee  to  present  the 
within-named  call  to  Mr.  Cowell,  and  to  discourse  with  him  in  behalf 
of  the  congregation,  and  his  settling  among  us. 

"Jos.  Yard^  Clerk,  S." 

There  is  also  on  the  back  of  the  call  a  memorandum^  by 
the  hand  of  Mr.  Cowell,  "Recepi.  May  i,  1736,"  denoting 
the  day  on  which  he  was  waited  on  by  the  committee. 

Mr.  Cowell,  although  then  in  the  thirty-second  year  of 
his  age,  was  only  four  years  from  college,  and  was  still  a 
licentiate.  He  was  born  in  Dorchester,^  Massachusetts, 
December  12,  1704,  and  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1732, 
the  seventh  year  of  the  Presidency  of  the  Rev.  Benjamin 
Wadsworth.  Mr.  Cowell  was  in  college  in  disorderly  times. 
In  the  September  of  his  last  year  a  committee  O'f  the  cor- 
poration closed  an  eight-months'  investigation  oif  the  causes 
of  the  low  condition  of  morals  and  study.  The  commence- 
ment had  become  the  occasion  of  so  much  dissipation  in  the 
town  and  neighborhood,  that  for  some  years  about  this 
time  it  was  held  on  Friday,  and  then  with  a  very  short 
public  notice,  so  as  to  allow  but  the  end  oi  the  week  for  its 
indulgence.* 

I  find  no  record  of  Mr.  Cowell's  reception  to  the  care  of 
the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  nor  of  his  licensure.  They 
were  probably  in  the  lost  minutes  of  1732-3.  On  the  20th 
O'f  July,  1736,  the  people  of  Trenton  supplicated  the  Presby- 


Quincy's  "History  of  Harvard  University,"   i.   388-392. 


42  HISTORY   OF  THE 

tery  of  Philadelphia,  to  which  they  then  belonged,  for  the 
ordination  oi  Mr.  Cowell.  This  was  granted,  and  accord- 
ing to  appointment,  a  committee  of  Presbytery  met  at  Tren- 
ton on  the  second  of  November  of  that  year.  The  com- 
mittee, as  present,  were  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Jedediah  Andrews, 
David  Evans,  Eleazer  Wales  and  Richard  Treat.  The  Rev. 
William  Tennent  and  Hugh  Carlile  were  absent.  The  Rev. 
Jonathan  Dickinson  and  John  Pierson  sat  as  correspond- 
ents, having  been  delegated  on  other  business.  In  the  fore- 
noon of  the  first  day  Mr.  Cowell  was  carried  through  his 
examination  in  theology.  In  the  afternoon  he  preached 
his  trial  sermon  from;  Romans  3 :  25,  read  his  exegesis 
("An  lex  naturae  sit  sufficiens  ad  salutem"),  and  was  con- 
versed with  on  personal  religion  and  his  motives  for  the 
ministry.  The  next  day  was  observed  by  the  congregation, 
according  to  the  directory,  with  fasting  and  prayer.  At 
two  o'clock  the  services  of  ordination  and  installment  took 
place  "in  the  public  meeting  house,  at  Trenton,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  numerous  assembly,"  Mr.  Jedediah  Andrews,  of 
Philadelphia,  preaching  from  2  Timothy  2 :  2. 

At  this  Presbyterial  meeting  an  inquiry  being  instituted 
as  to  what  provision  could  be  made  for  the  vacant  congre- 
gations of  Hopewell  and  Maidenhead  (Pennington  and 
Lawrenceville),  Mr.  Cowell  was  appointed  to  supply  the 
former  as  often  as  he  could,  and  Mr.  Wales  the  latter. 

Mr.  Cowell  established  his  residence  in  the  town.  He 
was  then,  and  continued  through  life,  unmarried.  In  May^ 
1737,  he  was  received  in  Synod,  and  at  that  session  a  sup- 
plication coming  in  from  Trenton  for  an  appropriation 
from^  the  fund  for  the  assistance  of  the  feebler  congrega- 
tions, the  sumt  of  five  pounds  was  allowed  for  the  year. 

I  would  be  glad  to  give  some  notice  of  each  oi  the  signers 
of  Mr.  Cowell's  call,  but  find  it  impossible  to  collect  ma- 
terials to  any  extent. 

CoRNEUUS  RiNGo  was  of  the  German  family  which  gave 
name  to  the  village  of  Ringoes,  in  Amwell.     Philip  Ringo, 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  43 

oi  Amwell,  in  1757  left  four  sons,  Albertus,  Henry,  John 
and  Cornelins.  Cornelius  died  at  Maidenhead,  in  1768.^ 
Peter  Lott  was  a  name  of  several  generations.  In  1721 
one  of  them  died,  leaving  five  children,  to  one  of  whom, 
Peter,  he  bequeathed  "six  shillings"  more  than  to  the  rest, 
and  made  him  executor.  He  was  of  Hopewell.  Peter  Lott 
was  a  witness  before  Presbytery  in  Rev.  Mr.  Morgan's  case 
in  1737.  In  1755,  Peter  Lott,  of  Trenton,  had  (as  appears 
by  his  will)  a  nephew,  Peter,  son  of  his  brother,  Hendrick, 
and  a  nephew,  Peter  Rappleje,  and  a  third  nephew,  Peter 
Schanck.  He  had  a  brother,  Mewrice,  or  Maurice.  He 
desired  "to  be  buried  in  Long  Island,  where  my  father  and 
mother  were  buried."  In  1762  a  Peter  Lott,  Junior,  died 
at  South  Amboy,  leaving  sons,  Peter,  Daniel  and  Gershom, 
and  a  daughter,  Ruth;  and  in  1764,  the  legatees  of  Peter 
Lott,  of  Middlesex,  were  his  grandson,  Gershom,  and  his 
sons,  Henry,  Abram,  George  and  Charles. 

John  PorTErfiELD^  died  in  1738.  His  will,  dated  three 
years  before,  describes  him  "of  Trenton,  merchant,"  and 
devises  a  thousand  acres  on  the  south  branch  of  the  Raritan, 
and  other  property  in  East  New  Jersey,  "late  recovered 
from  John,  Earl  of  Melfort,"  one  of  the  noble  proprietaries. 
It  mentions  his  brother,  Alexander,  of  Duchall,  in  Scotland, 
and  a  nephew,  William  Rollston,  of  the  shire  of  Air,  and 
"Boyd  Porterfield,  grandson  to  m}^  brother."  He  be- 
queathed to  another  nephew,  William  Farquhar,  "chirur- 
geon  of  Brunswick,  all  my  interest  in  one  third  part  of  the 
forge  at  Trenton."  John  Kinsey,  of  Philadelphia,  Joseph 
Peace,  of  Trenton,  and  William  Farquhar  were  his  exec- 
utors. 

Francis  Gieeing.  A  blacksmith  of  this  name  died  at 
Trenton  in  1749.  His  children  were  John,  Martha,  and 
Rebecca.  His  wife,  Margaret,  and  Joseph  Yard  were  the 
executors. 

The  BeleERJEaus  are  of  French  descent,  and  have  their 
representatives  still  in  Trenton.     The  name  of  Samuel  Bel- 


44  HISTORY   OF   THE 

lerjeau  occurs  hereafter,  in  1770.  One  of  the  family  was 
a  physician. 

Richard  ScuddEr  came  from  Long  Island  in  1704,  and 
established  himself  on  a  farm  on  the  Delaware,  about  five 
miles  above  Trenton,  which  is  still  possessed  by  his  lineal 
descendants.  His  children  were  Hannah,  Mary,  Richard, 
John,  Abigail,  Joseph,  Samiuel,  Rebecca,  and  Joanna,  all 
of  whom;  were  baptized  by  the  Rev.  Jedediah  Andrews, 
eight  of  them;,  together  with  their  father,  at  one  solemnity. ^^ 
He  died  March  14,  1754,  at  the  age  of  eighty-three. 

His  son,  John,  who  also  signed  the  call,  died  May  10, 
1748,  at  the  age  of  forty-seven.  His  children  were  Daniel, 
Am'os,  Prudence,  Jemima,  Jedediah,  and  Ephraim. 

Daniel,  the  eldest  son  of  John,  died  June  5,  181 1,  aged 
seventy-five.  He  was  a  trustee  in  1786  and  subsequently. 
His  children  were  Rachel,  Keziah,  Abner  and  Elias. 

EiyiAS,  the  youngest  child,  died  February  20,  181 1,  at 
the  age  of  forty-four.  His  children  were  D'aniel,  John, 
Jasper  Smith  and  Abner.  The  third  of  these  is  the  present 
treasurer  of  the  city  congregation,  being  of  the  fifth  gen- 
eration of  the  family. 

Andrew  Reed  was  a  merchant  in  Trenton,  and  is  prob- 
ably the  person  mentioned  in  Governor  Morris's  papers,  as 
having  caused  an  excitment  in  1744,  in  consequence  of  his 
having  been  elected  loan  officer,  with  some  informality  by 
the  justices  of  Hunterdon.*  He  was  the  first  treasurer 
of  the  borough  of  Trenton  upon  its  incorporation  in  1746.^^ 
He  was  made  a  trustee  of  the  church  by  the  charter  of 
1756,  and  served  until  1759,  when  he  removed  to  Amwell, 
where  he  died,  December  16,  1769.  He  was  the  father 
of  General  Joseph  Reed,  of  the  Revolution,  who  followed 
him  in  the  trusteeship  in  1766.  Mr.  Andrew  Reed  resided 
for  some  time  also  in  Philadelphia,  and  was  a  trustee  of 
the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  in  that  city.     He  had  a 


Papers  of  Lewis  Morris,  pp.  275,  303,  317. 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  45 

brother,  Joseph,  who  died  at  Amwell,  in  1774,  whose  will 
mentions  the  children  of  his  late  brother,  Andrew,  namely, 
Joseph,  Boaz,^^  John,  Sarah  (wife  of  Charles  Pettit),  and 
Mary.  He  (Joseph)  left  a  legacy  to  Margaret,  "the  wife 
of  Clotworthy  Reed,  of  Trenton,"^^  a  name  which  is 
found  among  the  signers  of  the  call.  He  also'  left  thirty 
pounds  to  Princeton  College,  in  addition  to  twenty  already 
subscribed,  and  fifty  to  the  united  Presbyterian  congrega- 
tions of  Amwell,  directing  that  his  body  should  be  interred 
in  "the  old  English  Presbyterian  meeting-house  graveyard 
in  Amwell,"  or  in  any  other  Presbyterian  graveyard  nearer 
which  he  might  be  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

In  the  Register  of  Baptisms,  by  the  Rev.  Jedediah  An- 
drews, pastor  of  the  First  Church  of  Philadelphia,  some  of 
the  names  of  the  signers  are  found. ^^  August  2,  171 1, 
Mr.  Andrews  baptized  in  Hopewell,  Richard  Scudder^ 
and  his  eight  children,  Hannah,  Mary,  Richard.  John, 
Abigail,  Joseph,  Samuel  and  Rebekah.  At  Maidenhead, 
March  6,  1713,  Rebekah,  daughter  of  Ebenezer  Prout, 
and  Daniel,  son  of  Robert  Lanning.  At  Hopewell,  April 
21,  1 71 3,  Susanna,  daughter  of  Richard  Scudder,  and 
Alexander,  son  of  Charees  Ceark.  At  Maidenhead, 
December  21,  1713,  Abigail,  daughter  of  Raeph  Hart. 
At  Hopewell,  July  28,  1714,  Eunice,  daughter  of  EbEnezEr 
ProuT.  At  Maidenhead,  April  17,  171 5,  Edward,  son  of 
Ralph  Hunt.  July  13,  171 5,  Joseph  and  Anna,  children 
of  Eeiakim  Anderson  ;  Frances,  daughter  of  Robert 
Lanning. 

The  year  1738  is  notable  in  the  history  of  New  Jersey, 
as  the  first  in  which  the  Province  had  a  Governor  exclus- 
ively its  own.  Heretofore  the  crown  had  united  it  with 
New  York  in  the  commissions  of  the  successive  Governors ; 
but  now  Colonel  Lewis  Morris,  a  native  of  Morrisania,  in 
New  York,  was  appointed  for  New  Jersey  alone.  The 
Legislative  Assembly  of  the  Province  was  accustomed  to 


46         HISTORY   OF   FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH. 

meet  alternately  at  Perth  Amboy  and  Burling"ton.  Gover- 
nor Morris  was  anxious  to  fix  upon  a  permanent  and  more 
central  place  for  the  seat  of  gnoivernment.  In  1740  he  writes: 
"I  have  hired  Dagwcrthy's  house  at  Trenton."  In  1742 
he  negotiates  with  Governor  Thomas/^  of  Pennsylvania, 
for  a  lease  of  his  estate  called  Kingsbury — ^the  property  in 
the  lower  part  of  Warren  (then  King)  street,  subsequently 
occupied  by  other  provincial  governors — and  which,  after 
a  long  interval,  became  the  executive  mansion  during  the 
incumbency  of  Governor  Price.  Lewis  describes  it  in  1744 
as  "about  half  a  mile  from  Trenton;  a  very  healthy  and 
pleasant  place,  parted  by  a  small  brook  (Assanpink)  from 
Trentown,  the  great  thoroughfare  between  York  and  Phila- 
delphia." He  was  not  able  to  obtain  a  change  in  the  seat 
of  government;  but  in  accommodation  to  his  bad  health 
the  Legislature  was  summoned  to  meet  at  Trenton,  and 
once  at  least  at  Kingsbury,  in  order  to  be  dissolved  in  per- 
son by  the  Governor.     He  died  there.  May  21,  1746. 

Governor  Morris  belonged  to  the  English  Church,  and 
while  a  resident  at  his  estate  of  Tintern,  or  Tinton,  in  Mon- 
mo'Uth  county,  when  President  (1700)  of  Council,  had 
recommended  to  the  Bishop  O'f  London,  as  necessary  "to  the 
bringing  over  to  the  Church  the  people  in  these  countries," 
that  none  but  "churchmen"  should  be  placed  in  the  high 
offices;  that  members  of  that  Church  should  have  "some 
peculiar  privileges  above  others,"  and  that  no  man  should 
be  admitted  to  a  great  benefice  in  England  who  had  not 
preached  "three  years  gratis  in  America."  But  his  secta- 
rian zeal  had  disappeared  when  he  made  his  will :  "I  forbid 
any  man  to  be  paid  for  preaching  a  funeral  sermon  over  me ; 
those  who  survive  me  will  commend  or  blame  my  life 
as  they  think  fit,  and  I  am  not  for  paying  of  any  man  for 
doing  of  either;  but  if  any  man,  whether  Churchman  or 
Dissenter,  in  or  not  in  priest's  orders,  is  inclined  to  say  any- 
thing on  that  occasion,  he  may,  if  my  executors  think  fit  to 
admit  him  to  do  it."^^ 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Rev.  Mr.  CowelIv  and  Rev.  Mr.  Tennent.     Schism  oe 

Synod. 

1736 — 1760. 

Mr.  Coweel's  name  appears  in  the  minutes  of  Presby- 
tery, first  of  Philadelphia,  afterwards  of  New  Brunswick, 
as  a  punctual  attendant  down  to  1746.  From  that  year  to 
1762  there  is  a  hiatus  in  the  records,  and  there  is  no  means 
of  ascertaining  what  part  he  took  in  that  judicature  during 
the  remainder  of  his  life,  beyond  what  transpires  through 
the  minutes  of  the  Synod. 

It  is  only  from  the  proceedings  of  this  court  that  we 
obtain  information  of  a  theological  controversy  between 
Mr.  Cowell  and  the  Rev.  Gilbert  Tennent,  of  the  Presby- 
tery of  New  Brunswick,  that  is  first  mentioned  in  May, 
1738,  at  which  time  a  large  correspondence  had  already 
passed  between  them.  From  the  tenor  of  the  proceedings 
in  three  successive  sessions  of  the  Synod,  it  appears  that 
Mr.  Tennent  suspected  Mr.  Cowell  of  holding  that  doctrine, 
or  some  form  of  it,  which  makes  the  happiness  of  the  indi- 
vidual the  chief  motive  of  religion.  Not  satisfied  with  the 
result  of  the  correspondence,  Mr.  Tennent  brought  the  sub- 
ject to  the  notice  of  Synod  May  27,  1738,  with  a  request  for 
an  expression  of  their  opinion.  The  Synod  appointed  a 
committee,  composed  of  Rev.  Messrs.  J.  Dickinson,  Pierson, 
Pemberton,  Thomson,  Anderson,  Boyd  and  Treat,  to  con- 
verse with  the  two  controvertists  together,  "that  they  may 
see  whether  they  so  widely  differ  in  their  sentiments  as  is 
supposed;  and  if  they  find  there  be  necessity,  distinctly  to 
consider  the  papers;  that  Mr.  Tennent  and  Mr.  Cowell  be 

(47) 


48  HISTORY    OF   THE 

both  directed  to  refrain  all  public  discourses  upon  this  con- 
troversy, and  all  methods  of  spreading  it  among  the  popu- 
lace, until  the  committee  have  made  their  report  to  the 
Synod,  and  that  no  other  member  take  notice  of  and  divulge 
the  affair."  The  committee,  finding  that  the  debate  was  not 
to  be  settled  by  conversation,  obtained  leave  to  defer  their 
report  until  the  next  Synod,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cross  was 
added  to  their  number. 

On  the  second  day  of  the  next  year's  session  (May  24.. 
1739),  the  committee  were  not  prepared  tO'  report.  On  the 
25th  the  subject  was  again  deferred — the  committee  being 
probably  engaged  in  private  conference  with  the  parties. 
On  the  29th  the  report  was  presented ;  upon  hearing  which 
the  Synod  expressed  their  great  satisfaction-  in  finding  the 
contending  parties  fully  agreed  in  their  sentiments  upon  the 
point  in  controversy,  according  to-  the  terms  in  which  the 
overture  of  the  commiittee  had  em:bodied  the  doctrine.  The 
committee  preface  the  theological  statement  to  which  they 
had  secured  the  assent  of  the  disputants,  with  this  somewhat 
caustic  intimation: 

"Though  they  apprehend  that  there  were  some  incautious  and  un- 
guarded expressions  used  by  both  the  contending  parties,  yet  they  have 
ground  to  hope  that  the  principal  controversy  between  them  flows  front 
their  not  having  clear  ideas  of  the  subject  they  so  earnestly  debate 
about,  and  not  from  any  dangerous  errors  they  entertain." 

The  committee  then  proceeded  to^  harmonize  the  views 
which  each  of  the  polemics  took  of  his  favorite  side  of  the 
problem.  The  substance  of  their  statement  is,  that  God 
has  been  pleased  to  connect  the  highest  happiness  of  man 
with  the  promotion  of  the  divine  glo'ry,  and  therefore  the 
two  designs  must  never  be  placed  in  opposition. 

The  decision  was  made  at  the  last  sederunt  of  the  meet- 
ing, when  Mr,  Tennent  had  not  much  time  to  weigh  the 
terms  of  the  report;    but  upon  the  reading  of  the  minutes 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  49 

at  the  opening'  of  the  session  of  1740,  he  expressed  his 
dissatisfaction  and  asked  for  a  reconsideration  of  the 
subject.  After  much  debate  upon  this  request,  it  was 
refused  by  a  great  majority.*  Mr.  Tennent's  disposition 
was  not  towards  concession.  Neither  his  pen  nor  voice  as 
yet  gave  promise  oi  the  future  "Irenicum."  As  Dr.  Finley 
said  at  his  funeral,  if  an  end  seemed  to  be  attainable,  "he 
would  not  g-ive  up  the  point  while  o^ne  glimpse  of  hope 
remained."  He  subsequently  alluded  in  the  harshest  terms 
toi  what  he  conceived  to^  be  the  heretical  standing  of  many 
of  the  Synod  on  the  point  of  his  controversy  with  Mr. 
Cowell.  "His  natural  disposition,"  says  Dr.  Alexander, 
"appears  to  have  been  severe  and  uncompromising;  and  he 
gave  strong  evidence  of  being  very  tenacious  of  all  his 
opinions,  and  not  very  tolerant  O'f  those  who  dissented  from 
his  views,  as  appeared  by  the  controversy  which  he  had 
with  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cowell,  of  Trenton,  and  which  he 
broug'ht  before  the  Synod. "f 

Our  whole  Church  was  now  approaching  one  of  the  most 
exciting  and  tumultuous  epochs  in  its  history — an  epoch 
signalized  by  the  discordant  epithets  of  "The  Great  Re- 
vival," and  "The  Great  Schism,"  to  which  might  be  added, 
as  their  sequel,"The  Great  Relapse" — the  times  of  Edwards, 
Whitefield,  Wesley,  Tennents,  Dickinson,  Blair,  Davenport, 
and  the  parties,  sects,  and  controversies  with  which  their 
names  are  associated ;  times  of  fanaticism  and  censorious- 
ness,  yet  also'  of  awakening  and  reformation;  the  good  of 
which  has  overbalanced  the  mischief — the  Divine  wisdom 
neutralizing^  the  foolishness  O'f  men.  A  full  and  candid 
survey  of  the  period  from  1740  to  1758,  and  a  discriminat- 
ing view  of  what  is  pure  and  what  spurious  in  the  character 
of  a  "Revival,"  may  be  found  in  Dr.  Hodge's  volumes  on 

*  Records,   pp.    138,    142,    143,    146,    149,    150.      The   proceedings   are   given   in    Dr. 
Hodge's  Constitutional  History.     Part  I.,  pp.  235-239. 
t  "Log  College,"  chap.   iv. 

4  pre;s 


so  HISTORY   OF   THE 

the  "Constitutional  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church." 
All  that  pertains  to  my  limited  purpose  may  be  compressed 
in  a  few  paragraphs.* 

Both  in  this  country  and  Great  Britain,  the  piety  of  the 
Church,  its  ministry  and  laity,  was  in  a  languid  condition. 
In  some  parts  this  was  accompanied  with,  or  caused  by,  a 
looseness  in  doctrinal  opinion.  The  first  marked  symptoms 
of  improvement  appeared  at  Freehold,  New  Jersey,  in  the 
congregation  under  the  care  of  the  Rev.  John  Tennent,  and 
throughout  his  brief  ministry  from  1730  to^  his  death  in 
1732.  Under  the  itinerating  ministry  of  the  Rev.  John 
Rowland,  in  Maidenhead,  Hopewell,  and  Amwell,  similar 
effects  appeared  a  few  years  later,  and  most  conspicuously 
in  1740.  In  Elizabethtown,  Newark,  New  Brunswick,  and 
other  parts  of  New  Jersey,  as  well  as  in  the  neighboring 
Provinces,  and  in  Virginia  and  New  England,  the  "awaken- 
ing" was  remarkably  extended  and  decided.  In  the  year 
1738,  Whitefield  first  appeared  in  America,  and  repeated 
his  visits  at  intervals  until  his  death  at  Newburyport  in 
1770.  His  extraordinary  preaching  and  inexhaustible 
enthusiasm  served  to^  increase  and  diffuse  the  religious 
fervor  that  had  already  made  its  appearance,  while  the 
irregularities  of  his  measures,  and  the  marks  of  fanaticism! 
that  characterized  his  language  and  conduct,  excited  the 
mistrust  of  some  of  the  most  pious  and  judicious,  as  to  the 
ultimate  effect  of  his  course. 

It  was  the  excitement,  both  good  and  bad,  attending  the 
movements  just  referred  to,  that  led  some  of  the  most  zeal- 
ous ministers  to  disregard  formalities  and  regulations  which 
they  supposed  were  impediments  in  the  way  of  attempting 
what  the  times  required.  In  1737,  the  Synod  of  Philadel- 
phia, the  only  Synod  and  the  highest  court  of  the  Church, 
prohibited  the  intrusion  of  the  ministers  of  one  Presbytery 
within  the  bounds  of  another.    The  main  object  of  this  law 


For  the   documents   and   records  see   Baird's   Digest,   2d   edition,   pp.    592-617. 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  51 

was  to  prevent  itinerant  ministers  from  producing  confusion 
by  preaching  in  parishes  uninvited  by  the  proper  minister. 
Again,  in  1738,  the  Synod  directed  that  every  candidate  for 
the  ministry  should  present  to  the  Presbytery  to  which  he 
appHed  a  diploma  of  graduation,  or  an  equivalent  certifi- 
cate of  scholarship  from  a  committee  of  the  Synod.  In  that 
year  the  Synod  had  formed  out  of  the  Presbyteries  of  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick. 
All  the  churches  and  ministers  to  the  north  and  east  of 
Maidenhead  and  Hopewell,  with  some  others,  were  united 
in  the  new  Presbytery.  On  the  first  day  of  its  constitution 
it  deliberately  disregarded  the  latter  rule,  and  licensed  a 
candidate  without  diploma  or  certificate.  The  Synod  pro- 
nounced this  act  disorderly,  and  refused  to  recognize  the 
licentiate.  In  reply,  the  Presbytery,  led  by  the  Rev.  Gilbert 
Tennent,  stated  their  objections  to  both  of  the  above-named 
rules,  as  infringing  on  Presbyterial  rights  and  transgressing 
Synodal  authority.^  The  Synod  slightly  modified  the  rule 
of  examination,  but  adhered  to  its  principles.  The  Presby- 
tery persisted  in  their  contumacy,  ordained  the  very  proba- 
tioner (Rowland)  that  they  had  irregularly  licensed,  and 
continued  to  license  in  the  old  way. 

The  Hopewell  family  of  churches  became  involved  in  the 
schismatic  proceedings.  Hopewell  and  Maidenhead,  still  in 
the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  supplicated  the  new  Presby- 
tery for  Mr.  Rowland  as  their  supply,  which  was  granted. 
The  Presbytery  oi  Philadelphia,  which  had,  through  Mr. 
Cowell,  informed  Rowland  that  they  adhered  to  the  Synod's 
view  of  his  defective  standing,  and  advised  him  not  to 
preach  at  Hopewell,  now  refused  to  allow  him  to  minister 
in  their  jurisdiction.  Thereupon  the  people  who  favored 
Rowland  asked  the  Philadelphia  Presbytery  to  form  them 
into  a  separate  congregation.  This  was  consented  to,  pro- 
vided they  would  not  erect  a  new  church  without  the  consent 
of  the  other  part  of  the  congregation  to  its  location.-    Upon 


52  HISTORY   OF  THE 

this  agreement  they  were  set  off.  The  new  congregation  at 
once  asked  to  be  dismissed  to  the  more  congenial  Presbytery 
oi  New  Brunswick.  The  Presbytery  insisted  upon  their 
first  complying  with  the  condition  on  which  they  were  set 
off.  The  people  complained  of  this  decision  to  Synod, 
which  (1739)  wholly  sustained  the  Presbytery,  and  pro- 
vided for  their  (the  Presb)rtery's)  fixing  the  place  of  the 
new  house,  but  none  of  the  parties  submitted  to  its  judg- 
ment. 

Matters  became  still  more  complicated  as  the  Synod  en- 
deavored to  compromise  the  points  in  debate.  Gilbert  Ten- 
nent,  with  his  characteristic  harshness  and  uncharitableness, 
formally  attributed  the  objectionable  rules  of  the  Synod, 
and  its  adherence  to  them,  to  doctrinal  unsoundness  and 
want  of  piety.  Mr.  Blair  followed  in  the  same  strain. 
Tennent  encouraged  the  schismatic  tendencies  of  the 
Synod's  opponents  by  a  bold  sermon  at  Nottingham,  excit- 
ing the  disaffected  to  withdraw  from  the  ministry  of  those 
whom  he  condemned.  It  was  fruitful  in  alienations  and 
divisions. 

The  Synod  met  in  174 1.  A  violent  protest  against  recog- 
nizing the  Tennent  party  as  members  of  Synod  was  read, 
and  then  signed  by  a  majority.  Scenes  of  disorder  ensued. 
The  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick,  regarding  themselves 
excluded  by  this  unconstitutional  measure,  withdrew  in  a 
body  from  the  house.  The  next  day  it  divided  itself  into  the 
Presbyteries  of  New  Brunswick  and  Londonderry,  and 
took  measures  for  organizing  a  new  Synod.  In  1742  the 
old  Synod  was  occupied  with  ineffectual  plans  of  reconcilia- 
tion. In  1743  Mr.  Cowell  being  Moderator,  and  in  1744, 
the  discussion  went  on,  and  no  union  taking  place,  the  dis- 
owned members,  and  others  who  sympathized  with  them  as 
unjustly  dealt  with,  met  as  the  Synod  of  New  York  in 
Elizabethtown,  September,  1745.  In  the  references  to  this 
schism  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  is  called  historically  the 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  S3 

Old  Side,  and  the  other  Synod  the  New  Side.  The  separa- 
tion continued  until  1758.^ 

Through  these  agitations  Mr.  Cowell  stood  by  the  old 
Synod;  and  though  after  his  experience  of  Mr.  Tennent's 
qualities  as  an  antagonist  he  may  not  have  felt  any  personal 
prepossession  for  the  side  on  which  he  was  leader,  his  char- 
acteristic moderation  and  self-command  were  doubtless  pre- 
served. According  to  President  Davies,  perhaps  alluding 
to  these  times,  "in  matters  of  debate,  and  especially  of  relig- 
ious controversy,  he  was  rather  a  moderator  and  compro- 
miser than  a  party."  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  he 
was  carried  away,  as  many  were,  by  their  admiration  of  the 
zeal  of  Whitefield,  to  overlook  the  serious  perils  of  the 
excitement  of  his  visits.  Whitefield  was,  of  course,  a 
favorite  with  the  "New  Side."  He  was  onle  of  those  men 
towards  whom  a  broad  charity  is  extended  by  the  humble 
minds  who  honor  in  another  the  zeal  in  which  they  regard 
themselves  to  be  defective,  and  overlook  extravagancies  for 
the  sake  of  the  good  which  they  hope  they  will  be  the  means 
of  producing.  Whitefield's  history  stands  in  need  of  this 
charity,  and  we  should  be  slow  in  suspecting  those  men  of 
coldness  to  a  true  work  of  Divine  grace  who  were  consci- 
entiously restrained  from  giving  their  countenance  to  his 
methods  of  procedure. 

In  the  first  year  of  his  American  travels  Whitefield 
preached  at  the  towns  between  Philadelphia  and  New  York. 
His  own  journal  of  November  12,  1739,  says:  "By  eight 
o'clock  we  reached  Trent-town  in  the  Jerseys.  It  being 
dark,  we  went  out  of  our  way  a  little  in  the  woods ;  but  God 
s'ent  a  guide  to'  direct  us  aright.  We  had  a  comfortable 
refreshment  when  we  reached  our  inn,  and  went  to  bed  in 
peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  He  left  town  early  the 
next  morning.  After  preaching  in  the  neighborhood  he  was 
brought  back  to  Trenton  in  the  same  month,  by  the  pros- 
pect of  a  great  gathering  of  people  to  view  an  execution. 


54  HISTORY   OF   THE 

"November  21,  1739.  Being'  strongly  desired  by  many, 
and  hearing  that  a  condemned  malefactor  was  to  suffer  that 
week,  I  went  in  company  with  about  thirty  more  to  Trent- 
town,  and  reached  thither  by  five  in  the  evening.  Here 
God  was  pleased  to  humble  my  soul,  and  bring  my  sins  to 
remembrance,  so  that  I  could  hardly  hold  up  my  head. 
However,  knowing  that  God  called,  I  went  out,  trusting 
in  Divine  strength,  and  preached  in  the  court-house;  and 
though  I  was  quite  barren  and  dry  in  the  beginning  of  the 
discourse,  yet  God  enabled  m;e  to  speak  with  great  sweet- 
ness, freedoin,  and  power  before  I  had  done.  The  unhappy 
criminal  seemed  hardened,  but  I  hope  some  good  was  done 
in  the  place." 

Whitefield,  it  appears  from  this,  preached  according  to 
English  custom,  in  the  presence  of  the  condemned  man.^ 
Mr.  Cowell  improved  the  same  occasion  by  a  sermon  in 
his  own  church,  on  the  repentance  of  the  dying  thief,  which 
looks  as  if  he  did  not  offer  his  pulpit  to  the  eloquent  itin- 
erant. A'  letter  of  Jonathan  Arnold,  who  appears  to  have 
been  an  Episcopal  minister,  perhaps  a  missionary,  in  Con- 
necticut, dated,  "East  Chester,  November  27,  1739,"  and 
addressed  to  Wmi.  Smith,  Esq.,  of  New  York,  refers  to  an 
incident  of  that  visit.  "When  Mr.  Whitefield  came  with 
me  from  Trenton,  we  agreed  to  search  and  examine  each 
other.  He  had  the  preferance.  I  past  his  examination  till 
we  came  to  Brunswick,  after  which  I  was  tO'  have  the  same 
liberty  with  him.  He  escaped  by  turning  aside  to  preach  for 
the  famous  Mr.  Tennent." 

In  November,  1740,  Wliitefield  was  here  again,  as  his 
journal  speaks  of  having  had  at  Trenton  "a  long  confer- 
ence with  some  ministers  about  Mr.  Gilbert  Tennent's  com- 
plying with  an  invitation  to  go  and  preach  in  New  Eng- 
land." It  is  probable  that  he  visited  Trenton  during  his 
other  tours  in  America,  fromi  1744  to  1770.  On  the  30th 
of  July,  1754,  one  of  his  letters  says :   "To-morrow  I  preach 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  55 

at  Newark;  on  Wednesday,  at  two  in  the  afternoon,  at 
New  Brunswick,  and  hope  to  reach  Trent-town  that  night. 
Could  you  not  meet  me  there  quietly,  that  we  might  spend 
one  evening  together?"  He  was  advertised  in  the  Phila- 
delphia papers  to  preach  at  Trenton  on  the  13'th  and  14th 
September,  1754.^ 

Mr.  Cowell  was  an  active  member  of  Synod.  In  1738 
he  was  on  a  committee  tO'  m^eet  at  Hanover,  to  adjust  a  diffi- 
culty between  two  parishes.  At  the  same  session  he  was 
placed  on  a  committee  of  seven  to  examine  candidates  for 
the  ministry.  This  committee  had  charge  of  the  students 
in  the  Presbyteries  to  the  north  of  Philadelphia,  and  a  cor- 
responding one  had  charge  of  those  to  the  south.  In  1743 
he  was  Moderator,  and  elected  on  the  Synod's  commission 
for  the  year.  For  before  the  present  constitution  of  our 
church  was  adopted,  the  Synod  followed  the  usage  of  the 
General  Assembly  of  Scotland,  in  annually  appointing  a 
convenient  number  of  its  members  to  sit  as  a  commission  in 
the  interval  of  its  stated  convenings,  and  perform  any 
Synodal  business  that  required  immediate  dispatch.^  The 
Moderator  of  1743  was  also  added  to  a  committee  tO'  an- 
swer a  communicaticn  from.  Governor  Thomas,  of  Penn- 
sylvania, in  regard  to  a  pamphlet  by  the  Rev.  Alexander 
Craighead,  which  the  government  considered  seditious,  and 
which  the  Synod  disavowed,  both  as  to  its  sentiments,  and 
as  having  any  jurisdiction  over  its  author. ''^ 

In  1749  the  Synod  of  New  York  sent  a  delegation  to  the 
Synod  of  Philadelphia,  with  a  proposal  that  each  Synod 
should  appoint  a  commiission  to  meet  and  deliberate  upon  a 
plan  of  reunion.  This  movement  towards  reconcilation 
was  acceded  to  by  the  sister  Synod,  and  on  the  25th  of 
May  they  appointed  a  commission  of  nine  members,  of 
whom  Mr.  Cowell  was  one.  The  united  meeting  was  ap- 
pointed to  be  held  in  Trenton,  on  the  first  Wednesday  of 
the  ensuing  October.     The  meeting  took  place  accordingly 


56  HISTORY   OF   FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH. 

on  the  4tli  and  5th  of  October,  and  Mr.  Cowell  was  chosen 
to  preside.  The  negotiations  initiated  at  this  meeting  were 
prolonged  in  various  shapes  until  May  29,  1755,  when  a 
commission  of  conference  was  again  appointed  by  the 
Synod  of  Philadelphia,  and  Mr.  Cowell  was  one  of  its 
seven  members.  They  met  in  Philadelphia  on  the  same 
afternoon.  He  was  also  on  a  committee  of  five,  in  1756, 
to  answer  a  minute  then  received  from  the  other  Synod ; 
and  on  another  committe  to  obtain  a  charter  for  the  Wid- 
ows' Fund  from  the  Messrs.  Penn,  the  Pennsylvania  Pro- 
prietors, and  also  on  the  Synod's  Commission  and  Fund.^ 
In  May,  1757,  another  joint  conference  was  held  at  Tren- 
ton, of  which  Mr.  Cowell  was  a  member.  He  was  on  the 
Commission  of  the  Synod,  and  Committee  for  the  Fund, 
for  1758,  in  which  year  the  two  Synods  were  at  length 
combined  under  the  title  of  the  Synod  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia. 

At  the  first  meeting  of  the  new  Synod  (May  30,  1758) 
Mr.  Cowell  and  Mr.  Guild  (of  Pennington)  were  trans- 
ferred from  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  to  that  of  New 
Brunswick,  and  from  that  time  the  respective  churches  have 
retained  the  connection.  The  last  mention  of  Mr.  Cowell's 
name  on  the  Synod's  records  is  under  the  date  of  May  22, 
1760,  when,  although  not  present,  he  was  placed  on  a  com- 
mittee to  dispose  of  the  fund  for  the  relief  of  poor  and 
pious  youth  in  the  College  of  New  Jersey.^ 


CHx\PTER  V. 

Trenton  in  1748 — Episcopal  Churches — Trenton 
Names  and  Peaces — 1 722-- 1768. 

1746 — 1760. 

On  the  sixth  of  September,  1746,  at  the  instance  of 
Governor  Morris,  Trenton  was,  by  royal  charter,  constituted 
a  borough-town.  Thomas  Cadwalader  was  the  first  Chief 
Burgess ;  Nathaniel  Ward,  Recorder,  with  twelve  Bur- 
gesses. But  in  April,  1750,  the  inhabitants  having  found 
that  the  disadvantages  oi  incorporation  preponderated,  sur- 
rendered the  charter  through  the  hands  of  Governor  Bel- 
cher.* 

For  the  sake  of  the  impression  it  may  convey  of  what 
the  town  was  at  this  period,  I  will  here  make  an  extract 
from  the  journal  of  a  traveler  who  saw  it  in  the  year  1748. 
This  writer  was  Peter  Kalm,  Professor  of  Economy  in 
the  University  of  Abo,  in  Swedish  Finland;  who  visited 
North  America,  as  a  naturalist,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Swedish  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences.  It  was  in  honor  O'f 
his  botanical  researches  that  Linnaeus  gave  the  name  of 
Kalmia  toi  our  laurel.  Ulnder  the  date  of  October  28, 
1748,  Kalm  enters  his  observations  as  follows: 

"Trenton  is  a  long,  narrow  town,  situate  at  some  distance  from  the 
river  Delaware,  on  a  sandy  plain.  It  belongs  to  New  Jersey,  and  they 
reckon  it  thirty  miles  from  Philadelphia.  It  has  two  small  churches, 
one  for  the  people  belonging  to  the  Church  of  England,  the  other  for 
the  Presbyterians.  The  houses  are  partly  built  of  stone,  though  most 
of  them  are  made  of  wood  or  planks,  commonly  two  stories  high, 
together  with  a  cellar  below  the  building,  and  a  kitchen  underground. 


The  Charter  is  in  book  AAA  of  Commissions,  p.  266:    the  surrender  on  p.  306. 

(57) 


S8  HISTORY   OF   THE 

close  to  the  cellar.  The  houses  stand  at  a  moderate  distance  from  one 
another.  They  are  commonly  built  so  that  the  street  passes  along  one 
side  of  the  houses,  while  gardens  of  different  dimensions  bound  the 
other  side.  In  each  garden  is  a  draw-well.^  The  place  is  reckoned 
very  healthy.  Our  landlord  told  us  that  twenty-two  years  ago,  when 
he  first  settled  here,  there  was  hardly  more  than  one  house;  but  from 
that  time  Trenton  has  increased  so  much  that  there  are  at  present 
near  a  hundred  houses.  The  houses  were,  within,  divided  into  several 
rooms  by  the  partitions  of  boards.  The  inhabitants  of  the  place  car- 
ried on  a  small  trade  with  the  goods  which  they  got  from  Philadelphia, 
but  their  chief  gain  consists  in  the  arrival  of  the  numerous  travelers 
between  that  city  and  New  York,  for  they  are  commonly  brought  by 
the  Trenton  yachts  from  Philadelphia  to  Trenton,  or  from  thence  to 
Philadelphia.  But  from,  Trenton  further  to  New  Brunswick,  the  trav- 
elers go  in  the  wagons  which  set  out  every  day  for  that  place.  Several 
of  the  inhabitants,  however,  likewise  subsist  on  the  carriage  for  all  sorts 
of  goods  which  are  every  day  sent  in  great  quantities  either  from 
Philadelphia  to  New  York,  or  from  thence  to  the  former  place,  for 
between  Philadelphia  and  Trenton  all  goods  go  by  water,  but  between 
Trenton  and  New  Brunswick  they  are  all  carried  by  land,  and  both 
these  conveniences  belong  to  people  of  this  town. 

"For  the  yachts  which  go  between  this  place  and  the  capital  of  Penn- 
sylvania (Philadelphia),  they  usually  pay  a  shilling  and  sixpence  of 
Pennsylvania  currency  per  person,  and  every  one  pays  besides  for  his 
baggage.  Every  passenger  must  provide  meat  and  drink  for  himself,, 
or  pay  some  settled  fare.  Between  Trenton  and  New  Brunswick  a 
person  pays  2S.  6d.,  and  the  baggage  is  likewise  paid  for  separately. 

"On  the  road  from  Trenton  to  New  Brunswick  I  never  saw  any 
place  in  America,  the  towns  excepted,  so  well  peopled.  An  old  man, 
who  lived  in  the  neighborhood,  and  accompanied  us  for  some  part  of 
the  road,  however,  assured  me  that  he  could  well  remember  the  time 
when  between  Trenton  and  New  Brunswick  there  were  not  above 
three  farms,  and  he  reckoned  it  was  fifty  and  some  odd  years  ago."^ 

When  it  is  said  that  the  landlord  told  Kalm  that  in  1726 
there  was  hardly  one  house  in  Trenton,  either  the  Swede 
did  not  understand  the  Jerseyman,  or  the  host  spoke  at 
random;  for  if  as  early  as  17 19  the  courts  sat  in  Trenton, 
it  is  not  probable  that  such  a  selection  would  be  made 
seven  years  before  there  was  "hardly  a  house." 

The  statistical  guesses  or  reports  of  travelers  are  not  to 
be  relied  on,  especially  if  the  reporters  doi  not  speak  the 
language  of  the  country.     The  Rev.  Andrew  Burnaby,  an 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  59 

English  clergyman,  describes  Trenton,  in  1759,  as  "contain- 
ing about  a  hundred  houses.     It  has  nothing  remarkable : 
there  is  a  Church   (of  England),  a  Quaker's  and  Presby- 
terian   m;eeting-house,    and    barracks    for    three    hundred 
men."*     These  barracks,  which  are  now  in  part  occupied 
by  the  "Home  for  Widows,"  were  erected  in  1758,  simul- 
taneously with  those  at  New  Brunswick  and  Elizabethtown,^ 
Elkanah  Watson,  who  was  here  in  1777,  says :     "Trenton 
contains    about   seventy   dwellings,    situate    principally    on 
two  narrow  streets  running  parallel. "f     In  the  travels  of 
the  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucault  Liancourt,  in  1795-7,  Tren- 
ton is  said  to  "contain  about  three  hundred  houses;    most 
of  which  are  of  wood.     Those  oi  the  high  street  are  some- 
what better  in  structure  than  the  rest,  yet  still  but  very 
moderate  in  their  appearance."!    In  the  same  year  an  Eng- 
lish visitor  says:    "Trenton  contains  about   two   hundred 
houses,  together  with  four  churches.     The  streets  are  com- 
modious, and  the  houses  neatly  built." §     Melish,  in  1806-7, 
makes  it  "a  handsome  little  town,   containing  about   two 
hundred  houses." j|     The  Rev.  Mr.  Burnaby  "went  to  Sir 
John   Sinclair's,   at  the  Falls  oif  Delaware,   about   a  mile 
above  Trenton,  a  pleasant  rural  retirem'ent."^   Sir  John  Sin- 
clair's  knighthood   was   of   the   order   known    in   English 
heraldry  as  a  Baronetcy  of  Nova  Scotia.     He  was  the  first 
occupant    of    the    mansion    that    afterwards    belonged    to^ 
"Lord"    Stirling,    and   then   tO'   Mr.    Rutherford,    a   short 
distance  west  O'f  the  State  House,  and  on  the  river.     The 
three  families  were  connected.    The  house  was  subsecjuently 
tenanted  by  Robert  Lettis  Hooper,  and  the  walls  of  "the 


*  Travels   through   the  Middle   Settlements   in   North   America  etc.,   in    1759   and 
1760. 

t  Memoirs,   p.    9. 

{Travels;  Translated  by  Newman.     London,   1799,  i.   S94- 

§  Travels  through  the  States  of  North  America,  etc.,  in  1795-7.     By    Isaac  Weld, 
Jr.     London,    1799. 
II  Travels,  i.   143. 


6o  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Green  House,"  remiained  to  give  name  to  the  site  long  after 
the  dwelHng  itself  had  been,  demolished.  A  correspondent 
of  the  Trenton  "Federalist,"  oif  March  30th,  1802,  states 
that  the  first  ice-house  in  the  State,  "in  our  recollection, 
was  erected  by  Sir  John  St.  Clair  (so  written),  about  the 
year  1760."^ 

I  would  here  enlarge  the  notices  already  given  incidentally 
of  the  foundation  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Trenton  and 
its  vicinity,  I  have  mentioned  the  building  erected  on  the 
gro'und  conveyed  by  Hutchinson  in  1703,  and  its  occupation 
at  intervals,  if  not  jointly,  by  the  Presbyterians.  In 
Humphreys'  "Historical  Account  of  the  Gospel  Propaga- 
tion Society,"  we  have  the  following  statement: 

"Hopewell  and  Maidenhead  are  two  neighboring  towns,  containing 
a  considerable  number  of  families.  The  people  of  Hopewell  showed 
a  very  early  desire  of  having  the  Church  of  England  worship  settled 
among  them  ;  and  in  the  year  1704  built  a  church  with  voluntary  con- 
tributions, though  they  had  no  prospect  then  of  having  a  minister. 
The  Rev.  Mr.  May  was  there  some  short  time,  but  Mr.  Talbot,  from 
Burlington,  often  visited  them.  This  church  was  for  ten  years  vacant. 
In  1720  the  Rev.  Mr.  Harrison  was  appointed  missionary  there,  with 
the  care  of  Maidenhead,  but  soon  wrote  the  Society  word  that  he  was 
not  able  to  undergo  the  fatigue  of  constantly  riding  between  two 
places,  and  in  1723  he  removed  to  a  church  in  Staten  Island." 

In  the  Society's  "Accoiunt"  for  1706,  it  is  said:  "Many 
other  public  letters  were  continually  sent  over,  by  which  it 
appeared  that  the  inhabitants  of  Hopewell  and  Maidenhead 
were  building  a  church,  and  desired  a  minister  and  some 
subsistence  for  him."  In  1709  Mr.  Talbot  writes  from 
Burlington:  "Poor  Hopewell  has  built  a  church  and  have 
had  no  minister  yet."^  In  a  manuscript,  headed,  "State  of 
the  Church  of  England  in  America  in  1705,"  probably  a 
copy  of  some  English  document,  it  is  said  that  a  minister  is 
wanted  "at  Hopewell,  between  Crosswicks  and  Maidenhead, 
where  they  are  building"  a  church ;  and  one  "at  the  Falls, 
thirty  miles  above  Philadelphia,  where  a  church  is  building." 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  6r 

In  collating  these  notices,  Hopewell  and  the  Falls  would 
seem  to  indicate  different  localities;  and  if  the  former  be 
the  name  of  the  "Old  Church"  of  our  map,  in  Chapter 
II.,  the  latter  may  denote  some  other  place — perhaps 
in  Pennsylvania — to'  which  the  general  neighborhood  title 
of  the  Falls  may  have  been  applied.^ 

In  1749  a  lottery  "for  finishing  the  church  at  Trenton," 
was  drawn  in  Pennsylvania.  Of  the  Trenton  Episcopal 
Church,  however,  we  find  nothing  definite  until  June,  1750, 
when  the  Rev.  Michael  Houdin  is  reported  in  the  Society's 
Accounts  as  "invited  by  the  inhabitants  of  Trenton  and 
other  places  in  New  Jersey  to  go  and  officiate  among  them.'^ 
Upon  this  he  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Society,  dated  Tren- 
ton, November  i,  1750,  which  begins:  "Having  my  resi- 
dence at  New  York,  I  heard  of  repeated  complaints  made  by 
gentlemen  and  principal  inhabitants  of  this  place,  Allen's 
Town  and  Borden's  Town,  it  being  for  many  years  past 
destitute  of  a  Church  of  England  minister;  and,  without 
any  sort  of  application  of  mine,  about  five  months  ago  some 
of  them  were  pleased  to  press  me  by  letter  to  come  amongst 
them.  *  *  *  When  I  waited  on  them;  I  really  found 
they  were  destitute  indeed,  there  not  being  a  minister  of  the 
Church  of  England  nearer  than  Burlington."  The  Ab- 
stracts of  the  Society  for  1753  say:  "The  Rev.  Mr.  Houdin, 
having  for  some  years  officiated  at  Trenton  and  the  neigh- 
boring places  in  the  Province  of  New  Jersey,  among  the 
members  of  the  Church  of  England,  upon  such  slender  sup- 
port as  they  in  their  poor  circumstances  could  afford  him," 
the  Society  appointed  him  their  "itinerant  missionary  to 
officiate  in  Trenton  and  the  parts  adjacent." 

Michael  Houdin,  whose  name  has  been  usually  given 
nearer  to  its  pronunciation,  as  Udang  or  Eudang,  in  which 
latter  form  it  actually  appears  in  the  first  minutes  of  the 
Vestry  of  St.  Michael's  Church  (April  30,  1755)— born  in 
France  in  1705 — was  originally  a  priest  in  the  Church  of 


62  HISTORY    OF   THE 

Rome  and  Superior  oi  a  Franciscan  Convent  in  Montreal. 
He  renounced  that  faith  and  entered  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  New  York  in  1747,  and  thence  came  to  Trenton  as  the 
Society's  "itinerant  missionary  in  New  Jersey,"  on  a  salary 
of  fifty  pounds.  In  1759  Houdin  accompanied  General 
Wolfe  to  Quebec,  as  his  guide;  and  in  October  "intreats  the 
Society  that  his  absence  from  his  mission  may  not  bring 
him  under  displeasure,  as  he  was  in  some  measure  forced  to 
it,  in  obedience  to  the  commands  of  Lord  Loudon  and  the 
succeeding  commanders,  who  depended  much  on  his  being 
well  acquainted  with  that  country."  After  the  reduction  of 
Quebec,  Houdin  asked  leave  to  return  to-  his  missionary 
post,  but  General  Murray  retained  him  in  the  army.  He 
complained  that  he  had  lost  much  by  the  death  of  Wolfe, 
"who  promised  to  remember  his  labor  and  services."  From 
Canada  he  appears  to  have  been  sent  as  missionary  to  New 
Rochelle,  Westchester  county.  New  York,  where  were  many 
French  refugees.  He  died  there  in  October,  1766.*  The 
Rev.  Mr.  Treadwell  was  the  successor  to  Houdin.  In  May, 
1769,  the  Rev.  William  Thomson  produced  to  the  Vestry 
the  Society's  letter  appointing  him  to  the  mission  of  "Tren- 
ton and  Maidenhead,"  to  which  the  Wardens  gave  their 
approbation.^ 

The  nearest  newspaper  offices  accessible  to  Trenton  for 
half  a  century  after  its  foundation  were  those  of  Philadel- 
phia. Through  all  that  period  the  want  of  a  local  press  and 
the  obstacles  to  correspondence  kept  the  affairs  of  the  town 
in  their  native  obscurity.  Such  notices  and  advertisements, 
however,  as  are  found  in  the  Philadelphia  journals  afford 
some  idea  of  the  population  and  business  of  Trenton,  and 
give  some  names  of  its  early  inhabitants,  not  otherwise  to 
be  found.     From  a  cursory  inspection  of  a  series  of  Brad- 


*  Anderson's  History  of  the  Colonial  Church  of  England.  London,  1856,  vol. 
iii.  Bolton's  History  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Westchester  County.  New  York, 
1855.  P-  453-471-     O'Callaghan's  Documentary  History  of  New  York.     Vol.  iii.  955. 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  63 

ford's  Weekly  Mercury,  and  Keimer's  and  Franklin's  Penn- 
sylvania Gazette  *  I  have  made  the  following  miscellaneous 
notes.  A  number  of  the  names  are  among  the  signatures  of 
Mr.  Cowell's  call  in  1736. 

November,  1722. — William  Yard,  of  Trenton,  advertises  the  escape 
of  a  negro  servant. 

August,  1723. — Joseph  Peace"  offers  for  sale  two  dwelling  houses 
belonging  to  Peter  Pummer,  near  Trent's  Mill.  Inquiry  to  be  made  of 
Mr.  Peace,  at  his  residence  in  Trent  Town. 

September,  1723.— A  line  of  transportation  for  goods  and  passengers 
is  advertised  as  running  between  Trenton  and  Philadelphia,  once  a 
week  each  way.  The  agent  in  Trenton  was  John  WooUand.  The 
office  in  the  city  was  at  the  celebrated  "Crooked  Billet." 

March,  1728. — A  large  stone  house,  with  a  good  smith-shop,  to  be 
•sold  at  vendue  at  the  house  of  William  Hoff. 

December,  1729. — John  Severn's  stable  and  seven  horses  burnt. 

October,  1731. — For  sale  a  plantation,  adjoining  the  town  of  Tren- 
ton, 130  acres;  also  one  three  miles  above  Trenton,  near  the  ferry 
above  the  falls,  one  mile  from  Yardley's  old  mill,  and  three  from  his 
new  one,  500  acres.  "Inquire  of  Capt.  James  Gould,  at  Trenton,  and 
be  further  informed." 

December,  1731. — A  bolting-house  and  store,  belonging  to  Benjamin 
Smith,  took  fire,  "but  was  seasonably  prevented." 

June,  1732. — Enoch  Anderson,  "at  the  Falls'  ferry." 

July,   1732. — Enoch  Anderson,  Junior,  sub.  sheriff. 

August,  1732. — The  house  of  Ebenezer  Prout,  "near  this  place,"  was 
struck  by  lightning.     William  Pearson  was  hurt,  a  boy  killed. 

September,  1732. — Eliacom  [kim]  Anderson,  "now  living  at  Trenton 
ferry." 

February  1732-3. — A  fresh  carried  away  the  dam  of  the  iron  works, 
also  the  dam  of  the  grist-mill,  bridge  and  dyeing-house. 

September  19,  1734. — Notice  is  given  of  the  establishment  of  a  post 
office  at  Trenton,  "where  all  persons  may  have  their  letters,  if  directed 
for  that  county;  also  where  they  may  put  in  their  letters  directed  to 
any  parts,  and  due  care  will  be  taken  to  send  them."  The  postmaster 
was  Andrew  Reed,  and  the  office  was  at  the  house  of  Joseph  Reed.^" 

The  first  advertisement  of  uncalled-for  letters,  which  I 
have  seen,  is  under  the  date  March  25,  1755,  and  is  as  fol- 
lows: 


*  In    the    Philadelphia  Library   is    a    series    of    the   Mercury    from    1719    to    1746, 

and  of  the  Gazette  from  1728  to  1774.      The  latter  appeared  at  first  under  the  ex- 

■traordinary  title  of   The  Universal  Instructor  in   all  Arts  and  Sciences,  and  Penn- 
sylvania Gazette. 


64  HISTORY   OF  THE 

"A  list  of  letters  now  in  the  post  office  at  Trenton. 

C 

William  Carnegie,  near  Kingston, 
John   Clark    (Attorney,),    Trenton. 

H 
John  Hyde,  Hopewell. 

M 
Joseph  Morton,  Princetown. 

P 
Richard  Patterson,  Princetown. 

S 
John   Stevens,   Rocky  Hill. 

V 
Ares  Vanderbelt,  Maidenhead. 

"Letters  not  taken  up  within  three  months  from  this  date  will  be 
sent  to  the  General  Post  Office  at  Philadelphia." 

September,  1734. — Isaac  Harrow,  an  English  smith,  has  lately  set 
up  at  Trenton  a  plating  and  blade-mill,  where  he  makes  axes,  car- 
penters' and  coopers'  tools,  tanners'  and  skinners'  knives,  spades, 
shovels,  shears,  scythes,  mill  and  hand-saws,  frying-pans,  etc.,  "likewise 
all  sorts  of  iron  plates,  fit  for  bell  making  or  any  other  use." 

May,  1736. — Application  for  a  stone  house  and  a  lot  of  three  quarters 
of  an  acre,  to  be  made  to  Cornelius  Ringo  in  Trenton.  It  "lies  in  a 
very  convenient  part  of  the  town  for  any  manner  of  business,  being  near 
the  mill." 

February,  1737. — There  will  be  a  stage-wagon  from  Trenton  to 
Brunswick  twice  a  week  and  back;  will  set  out  from  William  Atlee's 
and  Thomas  Hooton's,  in  Trenton. 

October,  1737. — Servants  absconded  from  Benjamin  Smith  and 
Richard   Noland. 

November,  1737. — A  Scotch  servant-man  absconded  from  Mr. 
Warrell. 

January,  1738. — Servant  absconded  from  Joseph  Decow. 

August,  1739. — To  be  let,  the  grist-mills  at  Trenton,  with  two  tene- 
ments adjoining,  now  in  the  tenure  of  Joseph  Peace. 

December,  1739. — Andrew  Reed  receives  subscriptions  in  Trenton  for 
Whitefield's   Sermons  and  Journals,  to  be  published  by  Franklin. 

March,  1740. — William  Atlee  proposes  to  continue  to  keep  a  store 
with  John  Dagworthy,  Junior,  until  his  partnership  with  Thomas- 
Hooton  is  settled. 

II,  May,  1744. — To  be  sold,  by  Benjamin  Smith,  a  corner  lot;  also  a 
stone  house,  fronting  King  street;  sundry  lots  on  Queen  street. 

September,  1745. — To  be  sold,  "the  iron  plating  works,  smith's  shop, 
and  all  the  tools  and  moulds   for  making  frying-pans,   dripping-pans» 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  65 

etc.,  said  works  being  now  fit  for  use ;"  also  a  good  dwelling-house — 
all  of  the  estate  of  Isaac  Harrow,  deceased.  Apply  to  Anthony  Morris, 
Philadelphia,  or  William  Morris,  Trenton." 

January,  1745. — For  sale,  dwelling,  malt-house,  brew-house,  and  all 
utensils,  and  a  quarter  of  acre  of  land  in  King  street,  estate  of  William 
Atlee.  Enquire  of  James  Atlee,  Trenton,  or  Thomas  Hooton,  Trenton 
ferry. 

March,  1746. — Sundry  lots  offered  by  William  Morris  and  William 
Morris,  Junior,  on  both  sides  of  Hanover  street  45  feet  front  and  147 
feet  deep. 

October,  1746. — A  fair  for  three  days  will  be  held  in  the  borough 
town  of  Trenton  for  cattle  of  all  kinds,  goods,  wares,  and  merchandise. 

1746. — William  Morris,  Junior,  at  his  store  opposite  to  John  Jen- 
kins's, advertises  rum  by  the  hogshead,  and  salt  by  the  hundred  bushels. 

June,  1748. — Enoch  Anderson  offers  for  sale  a  house  "fronting  the 
street  that  leads  directly  to  New  York,"  also  "two  lots  opposite  the 
Presbyterian  meeting-house,  on  one  of  which  is  a  very  good   stable." 

April,  1750. — House  of  William  Douglass,  at  Trenton  landing. 

1750. — For  sale  by  Benjamin  Biles,  a  well-accustomed  tanyard,  with 
vats  enough  for  800  hides,  and  dwelling  adjoining  the  tanyard,  on  the 
west  side  of  King  street,  near  the  middle  of  the  town. 

May,  1750. — Thomas  Cadwalader  offers  900  acres  of  woodland,  a 
mile  and  a  half  north  of  the  town,  watered  by  fine  streams,  "one  of 
which  the  Trenton  mills  stand  on."  Also  a  plantation  of  700  acres, 
on  the  Delaware,  where  William  Douglass  now  lives,  north  of  Trenton 
about  two  miles,  adjoining  the  plantation  where  Mr.  Tuite  lately  lived; 
also  a  large  corner  brick  house  in  Queen  street,  in  a  very  public  part 
of  the  town;  also  25  acres  of  pasture  land  in  the  upper  end  of  Queen 
street. 

June,  1750. — For  sale,  plantation,  447  acres,  late  in  possession  of 
Alexander  Lockhart,  Esq.,  between  three  and  four  miles  from  Trenton, 
on  Scot's  road,  and  adjoining  the  old  meeting-house  lot,  and  the  plan- 
tation of  Charles  Clark,  Esq,     Enquire  of  John  Cox,  Trenton. 

April,  1751. — John  Evans,  cooper. 

January,  1752. — James  Rutherford's  house  robbed. 

April,  1752. — Elijah  Bond's  stable  and  fourteen  horses,  and  some 
adjoining  houses  burnt. 

September,  1753. — For  sale,  Nathaniel  Moore's  mills  and  plantation, 
six  miles  above  Trenton,  400  acres ;  apply  to  William  Clayton,  or 
William   Pidgeon,   Trenton. 

1754. — Several  men  for  sale  by  "Reed  and  Furman." 

May,  1754. — Tickets  in  the  lottery  in  Connecticut  for  the  benefit  of 
College  of  New  Jersey,  for  sale  by  Rev.  Mr.  Cowell,  and  Reed  & 
Furman. 

July,  1754. — Edward  Broadfield  has  removed  from  Bordentown  to 
Trenton. 

5    PRES 


66  HISTORY   OF   THE 

1756. — The  Philadelphia  and  New  York  line.  John  Butler's  stage 
starts  on  Tuesday  from  Philadelphia,  to  house  of  Nathaniel  Parker  at 
Trenton  Ferry,  thence  over  the  ferry  to  house  kept  by  George  Moschell, 
where  Francis  Holman  will  meet  John  Butler,  and  exchange  pas- 
sengers, and  proceed  on  Wednesday,  through  Princeton  and  New 
Brunswick  to  Perth  Amboy,  where  will  be  a  boat  to  proceed  to  New 
York  on   Thursday  morning. 

"  1757- — Subscriptions  for  the  Nezv  American  Magazine,  about  to  be 
published  in  Philadelphia,  may  be  left  with  Moore  Furman,  Postmaster 
of  Trenton. 

April,  1758. — Andrew  Reed,  of  Trenton,  advertises  tract  of  200 
acres  at  Amwell,  and  in  Trenton  two  good  stone  houses,  with  garden, 
well,  etc.,  one  of  which  now  lets  for  i8  los.  per  annum,  and  the  other, 
having  a  cooper's  shop  on  the  lot,  for  £12;  also  three  lots  on  the  west 
side  of  King  street,  45  by  140. 

April,  1758. — William  Douglass,  sign  of  the  Wheatsheaf,  or  at  the 
house  of  John  Cummings,  is  authorized  to  enlist  a  regiment  of  one 
thousand  men  for  the  King's  service. 

July,  1758. — For  sale  by  executors,  the  seat  of  Joseph  Warrell,  Esq., 
late  deceased,  well  known  by  name  of  Bellville,  on  the  Delaware, 
three-fourths  of  a  mile  from  Trenton,  with  gardens,  orchards,  etc. 
Also  a  plantation  of  300  acres,  within  one-fourth  of  a  mile  of  the  above, 
on  the  Delaware,  with  a  patent  for  a  ferry. 

May,  1759. — Robert  Lettis  Hooper  has  laid  out  lots  60  by  181,  for  a 
town  in  Nottingham  township,  beginning  on  the  Delaware  at  Trenton 
ferry,  running  as  the  road  runs  to  the  grist  mills  opposite  Trenton, 
thence  down  the  stream  of  the  mills  to  the  Delaware,  thence  down  the 
river  to  the  ferry,  being  the  head  of  navigation,  "where  there  is  a 
considerable  trade  extended  from  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  and  great 
parts  of  the  counties  of  Hunterdon,  Morris,  Middlesex,  Somerset,  and 
Bucks,  in  Pennsylvania,  deliver  their  produce,"  and  rafts  of  timber, 
staves,  etc.,  come  from  120  miles  up  the  river.  Offered  for  sale,  or  on 
lease  for  sixty  years.  Apply  to  advertiser  or  his  sons  Robert  L. 
Hooper  and  Jacob  Roeters  [or  Rutters]  Hooper,  "living  at  his  mills 
opposite  to  Trenton." 

May,  1764. — Samuel  Tucker,  Sheriff,  will  sell  that  well-accustomed 
tavern,  the  lot  67  feet  on  Front  street,  and  174  on  Market,  adjoining 
lands  of  William  Morris,  Junior,  Wm.  Cleayton,  James  Smith,  and 
Robert  Singer ;  house  35  feet  square,  having  a  "genteel  assembly- 
room,  with  a  door  opening  into  a  fine  balcony,  fronting  Queen  street," 
late  the  property  and  now  in  possession  of  Robert  Rutherford. 

March,  1765. — For  sale,  a  settlement  on  the  river  called  Lamberton, 
about  half  a  mile  below  the  ferry  near  Trenton,  with  utensils  for  cur- 
ing herring  and  sturgeon. 

March,  1768. — For  sale,  "Hermitage"  on  the  Delaware,  one  mile 
from  Trenton,  220  acres.     Apply  to  Benjamin  Biles. 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  67 

I  have  taken  the  trouble  of  making-  this  collection  for  the 
sake  of  the  local  interest  it  may  possess  with  the  inhabitants 
of  Trenton,  and  to  corroborate  what  was  said  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  chapter  as  to  the  probable  size  of  the  town  in  the 
first  quarter  of  the  century. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

CoivLEGE  OF  New  Jersey — Coweee,  Burr,  Davies, 

FiNIvEY. 

1746 — 1760. 

Oe  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cowell  was 
so  early  and  active  a  friend,  that  he  may  be  counted  among 
its  founders.  The  College  was,  indeed,  projected  by  mem- 
bers of  the  Synod  of  New  York,  as  one  of  the  means  of 
strengthening  themselves  after  the  disruption  of  1741,  and 
not  unlikely  as  a  means  of  removing  the  taunt  connected 
with  the  inadequacy  of  the  Neshaminy  school.  But  as  it 
was  to  be  established  in  New  Jersey,  and  for  all  that  he 
knew,  in  Trenton  or  its  neighborhood,  Mr.  Cowell  was  not 
so  bigoted  a  churchman  as  to  withhold  his  influence  from 
a  scheme  which,  while  it  had  no  positive  connection  with 
any  party,  promised  such  important  advantages  to  the  re- 
ligious and  educational  condition  of  the  whole  Province.^ 
He  had  learned  the  value  of  college  training  from  his  own 
career  at  Harvard,  and  must  have  shared  the  indignation  of 
the  friends  of  David  Brainerd  against  Yale,  when  he  was 
expelled  in  1742,  for  saying  of  one  of  the  tutors,  "he  has 
no  more  grace  than  this  chair,"  which  incident  is  said  to 
have  had  its  influence  in  encouraging  a  new  college. 

The  College  of  New  Jersey  received  its  first  charter  in 
1746,  and  was  opened  with  eight  pupils,  at  Elizabethtown, 
tinder  President  Dickinson,  in  1747.  Upon  his  decease  that 
same  year,  the  pupils  were  removed  to  Newark,  and  placed 
under  the  Rev.  Aaron  Burr,  who  had  a  classical  school  in 
the  town.     In  1748  a  more  enlarged  charter  was  obtained. 

(69) 


70  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Of  the  trustees  named  in  this  instrument,  Mr.  Cowell  was 
one,  and  he  was  deputed  to  wait  on  Governor  Belcher  with 
an  address  from'  the  corporation,  acknowledging  their  ac- 
ceptance of  the  trust.* 

The  Governor  was  regarded  so  much  in  the  light  of  a 
founder  of  the  College,  that  upon  the  completion  of  the 
edifice  they  formally  asked  his  permission  to  call  it  Belcher 
Hall.  He  declined  the  honor,  professing  to  "have  always 
been  very  fond  of  the  motto  of  a  late  great  personage,  pro- 
desse  quam  conspici — to  be  useful  rather  than  conspicuous"^ 
— ^but  asked  the  liberty  of  naming  the  College  Nassau  Hall, 
in  memory  of  William  HI.,  "who  was  a  branch  of  the 
illustrious  house  of  Nassau,  and  who,  under  God,  was  the 
great  deliverer  of  the  British  nation  from  those  two  mon- 
strous furies,  Popery  and  Slavery."!  Mr.  Burr  was  chosen 
President,  and  the  first  class,  seven  in  number,  was  grad- 
uated.^ At  the  first  regular  meeting  of  the  trustees  after 
the  correspondence  it  appears  that  President  Burr  fre- 
tO'  apply  to  the  Legislature  for  pecuniary  aid,  and  to  re- 
ceive subscriptions  in  Trenton.  From  the  few  remains  of 
the  correspondence  it  appears  that  President  Burr  fre- 
quently and  familiarly  consulted  with  Mr.  Cowell  about  the 
affairs  of  the  College.  In  July,  1753,  he  presses  him^  to 
be  at  a  certain  meeting  of  the  Board :  "Besides  discharg- 
ing your  duty  as  a  trustee,  you  might  consult  about  pro- 
viding for  your  school  in  the  best  manner.  I  find  myself 
a  great  deal  in  your  debt  as  to  the  article  of  letters,  and, 
like  other  bankrupts,  though  I  never  expect  fully  tO'  pay, 
yet  I  Would  make  som'e  attempts,  that  I  may  retain  my 
credit  a  little  longer.  I  will  do  my  best  in  providing  you 
a  schoolmaster,  but  have  some  fears  whether  I  can  quite 
suit  you  or  me.  One  of  the  best  I  must  keep  for  my  own 
use ;  one  or  two  more  that  I  could  recommend  are  otherwise 


*  Maclean's  "History  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey."      i :  62,  90. 
t  Dr.   Green's  "Notes,"  pp.   274-5- 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  71 

engaged.  I  have  three  in  my  mind,  and  am'  a  little  at  a 
loss  which  to  send."  The  compensation  offered  for  a 
teacher  at  that  time  was  twenty-five  pounds  and  boarding. 

From  the  allusion  in  this  and  other  letters,  it  appears  that 
Mr.  Cowell  was  looking  for  a  good  teacher  for  Trenton, 
and  that  the  school  referred  to  had  a  connection  with  his 
own  parish,  or  at  least  had  been  built  on  the  church  grounds, 
and  conducted  under  some  general  control  of  the  congrega- 
tional authorities. 

Some  light  is  thrown  upon  this  enterprise  by  an  adver- 
tisement which  is  found  in  the  Philadelphia  newspapers  of 
May,  1753,  and  which  is  not  without  interest  for  other 
reasons : 

"We,  whose  names  are  hereunto  subscribed,  sons  of  some  of  the 
principal  families  in  and  about  Trenton,  being  in  some  measure  sensible 
of  the  advantages  of  learning,  and  desirous  that  those  who  are  de- 
prived of  it  through  the  poverty  of  their  parents,  might  taste  the  sweet- 
ness of  it  with  ourselves,  can  think  of  no  better  or  other  method  for 
that  purpose,  than  the  following  scheme  of  a  Delazvarc  Island*  Lot- 
tery, for  raising  225  pieces  of  eight  [Spanish  dollars]  towards  build- 
ing a  house  to  accommodate  an  English  and  grammar  school,  and  pay- 
ing a  master  to  teach  such  children  whose  parents  are  unable  to  pay 
Eor  schooling.  It  is  proposed  that  the  house  be  thirty  feet  long,  twenty 
feet  wide,  and  one  story  high,  and  built  on  the  southeast  corner  of  the 
meeting-house  yard  in  Trenton,  under  the  direction  of  Messieurs  Ben- 
jamin Yard,  Alexander  Chambers,  and  John  Chambers,  all  of  Trenton 
aforesaid.  *  *  *  The  managers  are  Reynald  Hooper,  son  of  Robert 
Lettis  Hooper,  Esq. ;  Joseph  Warrell,  Junior,  son  of  Joseph  Warrell, 
Esq. ;  Joseph  Reed,  Junior,  son  of  Andrew  Reed,  Esq. ;  Theophilus 
Severns,  Junior,  son  of  Theophilus  Severns,  Esq. ;  John  Allen,  Junior, 
son  of  John  Allen,  Esq. ;  William  Paxton,  son  of  Joseph  Paxton,  Esq., 
deceased ;    and  John  Cleayton,  son  of  William  Cleayton,  Esq." 

The  drawing  was  to  take  place  June  nth,  "on  Fish 
Island  in  the  river  Delaware,  opposite  to  the  town  of  Tren- 
ton, and  the  money  raised  by  this  lottery  shall  be  paid  into 
the  hands  of  Moore  Furman,  of  Trenton,  who  is  imder 
bond  for  the  faithful  laying  out  of  the  money  for  the  uses 
above.     *     *     *     And  we  the  Managers  assure  the  adven- 


72  HISTORY   OF  THE 

turers  upon  our  honor,  that  this  scheme  in  all  its  parts 
shall  be  as  punctually  observed  as  if  we  were  under  the 
formalities  used  in  lotteries;  and  we  flatter  ourselves,  the 
public,  considering  our  laudable  design,  our  age,  and  our 
innocence,  will  give  credit  to  this  our  public  declaration." 

The  lottery  of  the  innocents  was  drawn  on  the  2d  July, 
1753,  and  the  building  was  doubtless  erected  immediately 
afterwards  on  the  spot  indicated.  The  minutes  of  our 
trustees  record  that  in  1765,  Alexander  Chambers  and  Ben- 
jamin Yard  were  elected  by  the  congregation  "Directors  of 
the  School-House."  In  a  lease  of  1800  to  the  "Trenton 
Academy,"  the  premises  are  described  as  "a  certain  brick 
building,  which  was  erected  on  the  lot  belonging  to  the 
trustees  of  the  said  church  for  the  purpose  of  a  school 
house."  The  lessees  added  a  story  to  the  building,  and  it 
continued  to  be  used  for  school  and  church  purposes  until 
it  was  taken  out  of  the  way  at  the  erection  of  the  present 
church. 

To  return  to  the  College.  In  1753  the  Reverend  Samuel 
Davies  and  Gilbert  Tennent  were  sent  to  Great  Britain  to 
solicit  contributions  for  building  a  suitable  edifice  for  the 
institution.  Princeton  was  selected  as  its  place.  It  was 
while  making  his  final  arrangements  for  the  voyage  that 
Davies  first  made  his  personal  acquaintance  with  Cowell. 
In  his  journal  of  September  18,  1753,  Davies  writes: 
"Rode  solitary  and  sad  from  Philadelphia  to  Trenton. 
Spent  the  evening  with  Mr.  Cowell,  an  agreeable  gentleman, 
of  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia;  but  my  spirits  were  so  ex- 
hausted that  I  was  incapable  of  lively  conversation,  and 
was  ashamed  of  my  blundering  method  of  talking."  It  was 
a  bachelor's  home.  The  next  evening  was  enlivened  by  his 
visit  to  the  family  of  the  gentleman  who  succeeded  Mr. 
Cowell  in  the  pastorship  of  Trenton.  "Rode  on  and  came 
to  Mr.  Spencer's,  at  Elizabethtown,  where  I  was  most 
kindly  received,  and  my  spirit  cheered  by  his  facetious  con- 
versation."^ 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  73 

At  various  dates  in  1754,  President  Burr  writes  from 
Newark  to  Mr.  Co  well,  who  was  on  the  building  committee. 
''I  liked  Mr.  Worth's  (the  mason)  proposals  very  well  on 
first  view,  and  think  with  you  it  is  necessary  to  have  a 
meeting  of  the  committee,  and  as  many  others  as  can  attend, 
as  soon  as  may  be.  *  *  *  Yesterday  I  received  letters 
from  Messrs.  Tennent  and  Davies,  dated  April  30,  which 
bring  the  agreeable  news  that  they  have  in  hand  and 
promises  £1400  sterling."  "Let  me  know  if  you  think  I 
had  best  bring  a  man  with  me  to  Princeton  that  understands 
quarrying."  "They  ask  double  the  price  for  carting  at 
Princeton  to  what  they  do  this  way ;  so  I  believe  it  would 
not  be  best  they  should  cart  much  sand."  "We  must  be- 
gin a  barn,  buy  a  wagon,  etc.,  immediately."  "It  pleases 
me  to  find  the  College  lies  so  much  on  your  mind.  I  have 
a  hundred  things  to  say  that  must  be  deferred  to  our  meet- 
ing, and  can  only  add  that  I  am  ut  semper  yours  affection- 
ately." "We  appointed  the  committee  to  meet  at  Princeton 
on  the  third  Tuesday  of  November,  but  I  fear,  things  will 
suffer  in  the  meantime.  We  depended  on  Mr.  (John)  Brain- 
erd's  going^  to  see  how  things  went  on,  but  he  is  sick.  I 
wish  your  affairs  would  admit  of  your  visiting  the  building ; 
and  if  you  think  there  is  need  of  it,  you  may  appoint  our 
meeting  sooner;  but  if  nothing  will  suffer,  it  is  best  the 
other  appointment  should  stand.  *  *  *There  should  be 
the  utmost  care  that  the  foundation  be  laid  strong.  We 
ought  to  have  had  a  man  to  oversee  the  work  de  die  in  diem, 
though  I  put  great  confidence  in  Mr.  Worth.  I  know  how 
much  you  have  the  affair  at  heart." 

The  trustees,  by  a  vote  on  the  29th  September,  1756, 
directed  the  removal  to  Princeton  toi  be  made  "this  fall." 
President  Finley,  in  1764,  wrote:  "In  the  year  1757  the 
students,  to  about  the  number  of  seventy,  removed  from 
Newark."  President  Green,  writing  in  1822,  believed  it 
took  place  in  the  vacation  succeeding  the  commencement  of 


74  HISTORY   OF   THE 

1756.  Dr.  Griffin,  at  Dr.  Macwhorter's  funeral  in  1807, 
said  the  removal  was  in  October,  1756,  and  this  is  confirmed 
by  a  memorandum  of  Nathaniel  Fitz  Randolph,  made  in 
1758.  The  commencement  of  1757  fell  on  the  26th  Sep- 
tember; President  Burr  died  in  Princeton  on  the  24th  of 
the  same  month.  Before  leaving-  the  town,  after  the  funeral 
and  comemncement,  the  trustees  elected  the  Rev.  Jonathan 
Edwards,  Sr.,  to  the  vacant  chair.  Mr.  Edwards  not  com- 
ing immediately,  the  trustees  in  December  appointed  Mr. 
Cowell  to  act  as  President  O'f  the  Colleg-e  until  their  next 
meeting'.'''  "The  choice  of  the  said  Mr.  Cowell,"  according" 
to  the  minutes  of  the  trustees,  "being  miade  known  to  him, 
he  was  pleased  to  accept  of  the  same,  and  was  qualified  as 
the  charter  directs."  Upon  his  election  it  was  "voted  that 
President  Cowell  provide,  as  soon  as  possible,  an  Usher  for 
the  grammar  school."  He  served  until  February  16, 
1758,  when  President  Edwards  took  his  seat;  but  held  it 
scarcely  a  month,  falling  a  victim  to^  the  small-pox  on  the 
22d  of  March. 

Mr.  Davies  was  elected  his  successor  on  the  19th  April, 
being  then  but  thirty-four  years  of  age.  Mr.  Cowell  was 
appointed  an  alterna'te  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Caleb  Smith,  to 
act  at  the  next  commencement,  and  was  placed  on  the  com- 
mittee to  attend  to  Mr.  Davies'  removal  from^  Virginia, 
import  books  from  England,  and  attend  to  the  completion 
of  the  President's  house  and  the  College. 

Mr.  Cowell  had  been  corresponding  with  Mr.  Davies  on 
other  matters,  before  his  election  to  the  presidency.  In 
a  letter  of  February  20,  1758,  after  lamenting  the  loss  which 
the  College  and  the  church  had  suffered  in  the  recent  re- 
movals by  death  of  Governor  Belcher,  President  Burr,  and 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Davenport,  Mr.  Davies  indulges  in  what  he 
calls  a  reverie,  as  follows : 

"As  the  death  of  these  good  men  was  undoubtedly  gain   to  them, 
may  we  not  modestly  conjecture  that  it  will  also  prove  an  advantage 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  75 

to  the  world,  though  we  are  apt  to  lament  them  as  lost?  I  cannot 
conceive  of  Heaven  as  a  state  of  mere  enjoyment  without  action,  or 
indolent  supine  adoration  and  praise.  The  happiness  agreeable  to  vig- 
orous immortals  must  consist,  one  would  think,  in  proper  exercise, 
suitable  to  the  benevolence  of  their  hearts  and  the  extent  of  their 
powers.  May  we  not  then  suppose  that  such  devout  and  benevolent 
souls  as  these,  when  released  from  the  confinement  of  mortality,  and 
the  low  labor  of  the  present  life,  are  not  only  advanced  to  superior 
degrees  of  happiness,  but  placed  in  a  higher  sphere  of  usefulness,  em- 
ployed as  the  ministers  of  Providence,  not  to  this  or  that  particular 
church,  college,  or  colony,  but  to  a  more  extensive  charge,  and  perhaps 
to  a  more  important  class  of  beings,  so  that  the  public  good,  as  the 
good  of  the  universe  of  creatures  taken  collectively,  to  which  the 
interests  of  private  persons  and  inferior  communities  must  always  be 
subordinate  under  a  wise  administration,  may  be  promoted  by  their 
removal  from  us,  and  from  their  narrow  sphere  of  beneficence  in  this 
imperfect  world.  And  if,  when  they  cease  to  be  useful  men,  they 
commence  angels,  that  is,  ministering  spirits,  we  may  congratulate 
them  and  the  world  upon  this  more  extensive  beneficence,  instead  of 
lamenting  them  as  lost  to  all  usefulness.  Thus,  sir,  I  sometimes  per- 
mit my  imagination  to  rove ;  but  I  must  confess,  sense  prevails  against 
speculation  and  conjecture,  and  as  an  inhabitant  of  this  world  I  deeply 
feel  the  loss.  Forgive  me,  dear  sir,  this  reverie,  which  seems  to  sug- 
gest a  new  thought;  if  it  should  be  new  to  you,  I  should  for  that  very 
reason  suspect  it  not  to  be  just. 

"I  heartily  rejoice  in  the  choice  the  Trustees  have  made  of  a  suc- 
cessor to  Mr.  Burr.  Mr.  Edwards  has  long  been  very  high  in  my 
esteem  as  a  man  of  very  great  piety,  and  one  of  the  deepest  thinkers 
and  greatest  divines  of  the  age.  May  the  Lord  long  continue  his  life, 
and  his  capacities  for  action !" 

Mr.  Da  vies  was  much  perplexed  as  to  his  duty,  when  in- 
formed of  his  ow^n  election  as  successor  of  President  Ed- 
wards. Upon  referring  the  matter  to  his  Presbytery  they 
recommended  his  remaining"  in  Virginia,  and  he  yielded  to 
their  judgment.  His  later  resolution,  and  the  state  of  mind 
which  led  to  it,  are  described  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote  on 
the  14th  of  September,  1758,  to  Mr.  Cowell,  and  which, 
notwithstanding  its  want  of  direct  connection  with  our  nar- 
rative, I  think,  needs  no  excuse  for  its  insertion  here,  es- 
pecially as  this  correspondence  has  not  before  been  edited.* 


See  "Biblical  Repertory."     July,  1840. 


76  HISTORY   OF   THE 

"Though  my  mind  was  calm  and  serene  for  some  time  after  the 
decision  of  the  Presbytery,  and  I  acquiesced  in  their  judgment  as  the 
voice  of  God,  till  Mr.  Smith  [Rev.  Caleb  Smith,  of  the  Committee] 
was  gone,  yet  to-day  my  anxieties  are  revived,  and  I  am  almost  as 
much  at  a  loss  as  ever  what  is  my  duty ;  nor  can  my  conscience  be 
easy  without  sending  this  postscript  to  my  former  letter  at  a  venture, 
though  I  have  no  other  medium  of  conveyance  but  the  post,  which  is 
often  uncertain  and  tedious.  I  can  honestly  declare,  sir,  I  never  was 
so  much  concerned  about  my  own  estate  as  I  have  been  and  still  am 
for  the  prosperity  of  the  College.  And  the  very  suspicion  that  I  may 
possibly  have  done  it  an  injury  by  not  accepting  the  honor  the  Trustees 
were  pleased  to  confer  upon  me,  causes  me  to  appear  almost  an  unpar- 
donable criminal  to  myself.  This  suspicion  haunts  me  night  and  day, 
and  I  can  have  no  ease  till  I  am  delivered  from  it.  It  received  a 
terrible  confirmation  when  I  found  that  though  the  Presbytery  could 
not  positively  determine,  it  was  my  duty  to  leave  Virginia  and  accept 
the  invitation.  Yet  they  were  very  skeptical  about  it,  and  wished  I 
could  have  determined  the  matter  for  myself.  I  am  also  apprehensive 
the  generous  error  of  their  excessive  personal  friendship  for  me,  and 
their  excessive  diffidence  of  their  own  abilities  to  manage  affairs  in 
a  concern  of  so  much  difficulty  without  my  conduct  and  assistance, 
had  no  small  influence  upon  their  determination.  I  am  likewise  con- 
vinced, that  if  I  had  been  able  to  form  any  previous  judgment  of  my 
own,  it  would  have  turned  the  scale,  and  theirs  would  have  coincided 
with  mine. 

"I  have  indeed  a  very  large,  important  congregation;  and  I  am  so 
far  from  having  any  reason  to  think  they  are  weary  of  me,  that  it  is 
an  agreeable  misfortune  to  me,  that  they  love  me  so  well.  But  I  make 
no  scruples  even  to  tell  themselves  that  they  are  by  no  means  of  equal 
importance  with  the  College  of  New  Jersey ;  and  some  of  them,  whose 
public  spirit  has  the  predominancy  over  private  friendship  and  self- 
interest,  are  sensible  of  it.  I  am  sure  if  I  had  appeared  in  the  same 
light  to  your  Board  as  I  do  to  myself,  I  should  have  escaped  all  this 
perplexity.  It  is  the  real  sentiment  of  my  heart,  without  affectation 
of  humility,  that  I  am  extremely  unfit  for  so  important  a  trust,  the 
most  important,  in  my  view,  that  an  ecclesiastic  can  sustain  in 
America ;  and  I  have  never  as  much  as  suspected  that  it  would  be  my 
duty  to  accept  it,  except  upon  the  supposition  of  its  being  a  desperate 
case,  if  I  should  reject  it;  and  it  is  my  fear,  that  it  may  be  so, 
consideratis  considerandis,  that  makes  me  so  extremely  uneasy.  When 
I  reflect  upon  such  things  as  these,  I  am  constrained  to  send  3'-ou  this 
answer,  though  I  am  afraid  out  of  season,  that  if  the  Trustees  can 
agree  to  elect  my  worthy  friend,  Mr.  Finley,  with  any  tolerable  degree 
of  cordiality  and  unanimity,  I  shall  be  perfectly  satisfied,  and  rejoice 
in  the  advantageous  exchange.     But  if  not,  I  shall  think  it  my  duty 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  77 

to  accept  the  offer,  if  the  Trustees  judge  it  proper  to  continue  or  renew 
my  election. 

"If  this  should  come  to  hand  before  another  election,  I  give  you 
leave,  sir,  though  with  trembling  hesitation,  to  communicate  it  to  the 
Board;  if  not,  I  beg  you  would  forever  conceal  it,  for  the  real  diffi- 
culty of  the  affair,  and  the  natural  caution  and  skepticism  of  my  mind, 
have  given  my  conduct  such  an  appearance  of  fickleness  that  I  am 
quite  ashamed  of  it.  M'y  life,  sir,  I  look  upon  as  sacred  to  God  and 
the  public;  and  the  service  of  God  and  mankind  is  not  a  local  thing, 
in  my  view.  Wheresoever  it  appears  to  me  I  may  perform  it,  to  the 
greatest  advantage,  there,  I  hope,  I  should  choose  to  fix  my  residence, 
whether  in  Hanover,  Princeton,  or  even  Lapland  or  Japan.  But  my 
anxieties  in  the  present  case  have  proceeded  from  the  want  of  light  to 
determine  where  the  sphere  of  my  usefulness  would  be  the  most  ex- 
tensive. 

"If  matters  should  turn  out  so  as  to  constrain  me  to  come  to  Nassau 
Hall,  I  only  beg  early  intelligence  of  it,  by  Mr.  Smith,  who  intends 
to  revisit  Hanover  shortly,  or  by  post,  and  I  shall  prepare  for  my 
journey  and  the  removal  of  my  family  with  all  possible  expedition. 
The  honor  which  you,  sir,  and  the  other  gentlemen  of  the  Trustees, 
who  are  in  other  instances  such  good  judges  of  merit,  have  done  me, 
is  such  a  strong  temptation  to  vanity,  as  requires  no  small  degree  of 
self-knowledge  to  resist. 

"I  shall  always  retain  a  grateful  sense  of  it,  and  I  pray  God  it  may 
have  no  bad  influence  upon  a  heart  so  deeply  infected  with  the  un- 
creaturely  vice  of  pride."* 

After  dispatching-  this  letter,  "extorted  from  him,"  as 
he  said,  "by  irresistible  anxieties,"  a  second  messenger 
(Halsey)  from  the  trustees,  appears  to  have  intimated 
to  Mr.  Davies,  that  in  the  event  of  his  declining  the  chair, 
the  Rev.  Samuel  Finley  would  be  the  choice  of  the  board, 
and  that  he  M^as,  by  some,  already  preferred  to  himself. 
Accordingly,  on  the  i8th  October,  Davies  writes  again 
to  Cowell,  to  urge  Finley's  election : 

"Since  you  and  a  majority  of  the  Trustees  have  thought  me  fit  to 
fill  so  important  a  seat,  you  must  also  think  me  in  some  measure  fit 
to  judge  of  the  proper  qualifications  of  a  President;  I  therefore  beg 
you  would  not  only  believe  me  sincere,  but  also  have  some  little  regard 
to  my  judgment,  when  I  recommend  Mr.  Finley,  from  long  and  inti- 
mate acquaintance  with  him,  as  the  best  qualified  person  in  the  com- 


See  Davies'   Farewell  Sermon  at  Hanover.     Vol.  iii.,  p.   359. 


78  HISTORY    OF   THE 

pass  of  my  knowledge  in  America  for  that  high  trust ;  and  incom- 
parably better  qualified  than  myself.  And  though  the  want  of  some 
superficial  accomplishments  for  empty  popularity,  may  keep  him  in 
obscurity  for  some  little  time,  his  hidden  worth,  in  a  few  months,  or 
years  at  most,  will  blaze  out  to  the  satisfaction,  and  even  astonish- 
ment, of  all  candid  men.  A  disappointment  of  this  kind  will  certainly 
be  of  service  to  the  College ;  but  as  to  me,  I  greatly  fear  I  should 
mortify  my  friends  with  a  disappointment  of  an  opposite  nature;  like 
an  inflamed  meteor,  I  might  cast  a  glaring  light  and  attract  the  gaze 
of  mankind  for  a  little  while,  but  the  flash  would  soon  be  over,  and 
leave  me  in  my  native  obscurity. 

"I  should  be  glad  you  would  write  to  me  by  post,  after  the  next 
meeting  of  the  Trustees,  what  choice  they  shall  have  made ;  for  though 
I  never  expect  another  application  to  me,  yet  I  feel  myself  interested 
in  the  welfare  of  the  College,  and  shall  be  anxious  to  hear  what  con- 
clusion may  be  formed  upon  this  important  affair." 

When  the  Trustees  met  in  November  (1758),  after  con- 
ferring and  comparing'  letters,  it  was  put  to  vote  whether 
Mr.  Davies'  refusal  was  to  be  regarded  as  final.  Upon  two 
ballots,  the  voters  of  "not  final"  and  "non  liquet"  had  the 
majority,  but  to  remove  the  embarrassment,  they  yielded; 
upon  which  the  Rev.  Jacob  Green,  of  Morris  county,  father 
of  Dr.  Ashbel  Green,  was  chosen  Vice-President,  and  the 
election  of  President  postponed  till  the  next  May.  I  find 
these  particulars  in  a  letter  from  Mr.  Cowell  tO'  Mr.  Davies, 
dated  at  Trenton,  December  25,   1758,  to  which  he  adds: 

"If  I  may  be  allowed  to  guess,  I  think : 

"i.  That  you  will  be  elected  next  May ; 

"2.  That  if  you  are  not,  Mr.  Finley  will  not  be. 

"I  think  with  you,  dear  sir,  that  the  College  of  New  Jersey  ought  to 
be  esteemed  of  as  much  importance  to  the  interests  of  religion  and 
liberty  as  any  institution  of  the  kind  in  America.  I  am  sensible  your 
leaving  Virginia  is  attended  with  very  great  difficulties,  but  I  can  not 
think  your  affairs  are  of  equal  importance  with  the  College  of  New 
Jersey." 

At  the  May  meeting  Messrs.  Davies  and  Finley  were  both 
nominated.  Davies  was  elected,  and  in  July  arrived  in 
Princeton.     Mr.  Cowell's  interest  and  activity  as  a  trustee 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  79 

did  not  abate  upon  the  accession  of  his  friend  and  favorite 
candidate ;  but  scarcely  had  eighteen  months  elapsed  from 
the  President's  inauguration,  before  both  were  in  their 
graves.  The  last  relic  of  their  correspondence  shows  that 
Mr.  Cowell's  medical  skill  (for  he  had  studied  and  on  emer- 
gencies practiced  medicine)  was  valued  in  Princeton.  Under 
date  of  February  15,  1760,  Mr.  Davies  writes: 

"Doctor  Scudder  has  inoculated  a  number  of  the  students,  who  are 
all  likely  to  do  well,  except  one,  who  was  taken  with  the  pleurisy  about 
the  time  of  his  inoculation,  and  had  an  inveterate  cold  for  some  time 
before.  The  Doctor's  own  family  and  his  father-in-law  were  inocu- 
lated about  the  same  time,  and  one  of  them  is  so  ill  that  he  has  not 
been  able  to  give  good  attendance  here.  I  made  an  explicit  reserve  of 
liberty  to  consult  any  other  physician  upon  the  appearance  of  any  other 
alarming  symptom,  therefore  I  send  for  you  at  the  request  of  many, 
as  well  as  my  own  motion.  I  beg  you  would  come  immediately,  for 
the  young  man's  life  is  in  evident  danger,  and  my  dear  Mrs.  Davies 
is  so  affected  in  her  mouth,  etc.,  with  the  mercurial  and  antimonial 
preparations,  that  she  has  been  in  exquisite  agony,  and  stands  in  great 
need  of  immediate  relief.  I  long  to  hear  from  my  promising  pupil 
under  your  care." 


CHAPTER  VIL 

Mr.  Cowei^Iv's  Death  and  Burial. 

1759— 1760. 

In  June,  1759,  Mr.  Co  well  was  present  in  the  Presby- 
tery, which  met  at  Trenton,  but  his  health  was  probably 
then  failing,  as  a  request  was  made  from  the  congregation 
that  his  pulpit  "might  be  supplied  at  least  in  part  during 
his  illness."  He  was  present  again  at  the  meeting  in  Prince- 
ton, July  25,  1759;  at  which  time  his  friend,  President 
Davies,  was  received  from  Hanover.  At  Basking  Ridge. 
October  30  of  that  year,  another  petition  was  brought  from 
Trenton,  "praying  that  as  Mr.  Cowell  is  unable  through 
sickness  to  attend  the  ministerial  function,  Mr.  Guild  might 
be  ordered  to  supply  them-  every  third  Sabbath."  In  com- 
pliance with  this,  Mr.  Guild,  pastor  cf  the  Hopewell  (Pen- 
nington) church  was  directed  tO'  "supply  as  much  of  his 
time  as  he  can  at  Trenton."  Mr.  Cowell  was  present  at 
the  meeting  of  Presbytery,  held  at  Nassau  Hall,  March  1 1 . 
1760.  The  regular  Moderator  being  absent,  Mr.  Cowell 
was  chosen  in  his  place,  and  President  Davies  acted  as 
clerk.  One  of  Mr.  Cowell's  successors,  William.  Kirkpat- 
rick,  was  at  this  meeting,  and  another,  Elihu  Spencer,  sat 
as  a  corresponding  member. 

"Mr.  Cowell  represented  to  the  Presbytery  that  he  has  been  long 
indisposed  in  body,  and  unable  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the  pastoral 
relation  to  his  congregation  in  Trenton,  and  therefore  requested  that 
he  might  be  dismissed  from  it;  and  the  congregation  also  by  their 
petition,  and  the  declaration  of  their  commissioners,  intimate  their 
acquiescence  in  it. 

6  PRES  (81) 


82  HISTORY    OF   THE 

"The  Presbytery  therefore  consent  to  the  request,  and  do  hereby  dis- 
miss Mr.  Cowell  from  said  congregation ;  yet  they  affectionately  recom- 
mend it  to  him  that,  if  it  should  please  God  to  restore  him  to  an  ability 
to  exercise  his  ministry,  he  would  preach  as  often  as  he  can  in  that 
congregation  while  vacant,  and  in  other  vacancies  as  he  shall  have 
opportunity." 

The  last  session  of  Presbytery  which  Mr.  Cowell  attended 
was  at  Lawrenceville  (Maidenhead),  September  17,  1760, 
the  sixth  meeting  held  in  that  year.  On  the  28th  of  October 
Messrs.  Kirkpatrick  and  Treat  were  deputed  to  supply 
Trenton. 

Mr.  Cowell's  decease  took  place  on  the  first  day  of  De- 
cember, 1760,  at  his  residence  in  Trenton.  He  was  in  the 
fifty-seventh  year  of  his  age,  having  served  the  Trenton 
people  in  the  town  and  country  congregations  nearly  twenty- 
four  years. 

His  beloved  friend  Davies,  who  was  then  in  the  middle  of 
the  second  year  of  his  presidency  of  Nassau  Hall,  was  called 
upon  to  preach  in  the  church  on  the  day  of  the  interment. 
He  fulfilled  this  office  with  great  affection  and  fidelity,  and 
it  adds  interest  to  the  narrative  to  know  that  in  a  few  weeks 
afterwards  (February  4,  1761)  that  most  eminent  preacher, 
just  past  the  thirt3^-sixth  year  of  his  age,  was  himself  sud- 
denly removed  by  death  from  the  new  sphere  of  usefulness 
and  fame  upon  which  he  had  entered ;  so  that  on  the  page  of 
the  Synod's  Minutes  of  May  20,  1761,  is  found  the  sen- 
tence :  "The  Presbytery  of  New-Brunswick  further  report, 
that  it  has  pleased  God  to  remove  by  death,  since  our  last, 
the  Rev.  Mr.  President  Davies  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  David 
Cowell." 

In  his  fatal  illness  Mr.  Davies  remarked  that  he  had  been 
undesignedly  led  to  preach  his  own  funeral  sermon.  He 
alluded  to  the  fact  that  he  had  delivered  a  discourse  on  New 
Year's  day  (1761)  from  the  words  in  Jeremiah,  "Thus  saith 
the  Lord,  this  year  thou  shalt  die."  He  took  this  text,  how- 
ever, after  having  been  informed  that  President  Btirr  had 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  83 

preached  from  it  on  the  first  day  of  the  year  in  which  he 
died.  Davies'  sermon  at  the  College  on  the  first  day  of  the 
preceding  year  is  entitled,  "A  New  Year's  Gift."  The  text 
of  that  is :  ''And  that  knowing  the  time,  that  now  it  is  high 
time  to  awake  out  of  sleep,  for  now  is  our  salvation  nearer 
than  when  we  believed."  It  is  the  fifty-ninth  in  the  pub- 
lished collection. 

The  autograph,  from  which  Davies  preached  at  Mr. 
Cowell's  funeral,  is  now  before  me.  It  is  a  sermon  on  the 
words  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  "Let  us  labor,  there- 
fore, to  enter  into  that  rest,"  adapted  to  the  occasion  by  a 
new  introduction,  and  by  what  appears  tC'  be  an  impartial 
and  discriminating  estimate  of  the  character  of  the  deceased. 
As  these  parts  of  the  discourse  are  interesting  as  relics  of 
the  great  preacher,  as  well  as  for  their  descriptions  of  a 
prominent  person  in  our  history,  I  shall  quote  them  in  full. 

The  new  opening  was  thus : 

"While  death  reigns  in  our  world,  and  spreads  its  pale  trophies  so 
often  before  our  eyes,  how  gloomy  and  dismal  would  our  prospect  be, 
especially  at  funeral  occasions,  if  Jesus  had  not  brought  life  and  im- 
mortality to  light  by  the  Gospel !  And  how  intolerable  would  be  the 
doubtful  strtiggles,  the  toils  and  fatigues  of  life,  if  we  had  no  prospect 
of  rest !  Add  an  everlasting  duration  to  them,  and  they  become  too 
oppressive  for  human  nature.  But  blessed  be  God,  there  remaineth  a 
rest  for  the  people  of  God ;  a  rest  that  may  be  obtained  by  hard  labor, 
though  lost  by  unbelief.  'Let  us  labor,  therefore,  to  enter  into  that 
rest.'  Here  heaven  is  represented  under  the  agreeable  idea  of  a  time 
of  rest;  the  way  to  obtain  it  pointed  out,  namely,  by  hard  labor,  and 
the  necessity  of  laboring  hard  implied.  These  are  the  several  topics 
I  now  intend  to  illustrate  for  the  religious  improvement  of  this  melan- 
choly  occasion." 

Having  completed  this  plan  in  the  usual  fullness  of  his 
manner,  the  discourse  closed  with  the  new  matter  prepared 
for  the  day,  as  follows  : 

"What  remains  of  the  present  hour,  I  would  devote  more  immed- 
iately to  the  memory  of  the  dead.     To  pronounce  a  panegyric  on  the 


84  HISTORY    OF   THE 

dead  is  supposed  to  be  the  principal  design  of  funeral  sermons;  and  to 
praise  the  dead  is  a  debt  which  envy  itself  will  allow  us  to  discharge. 
But  it  is  not  a  regard  to  ancient  custom,  nor  an  apprehension  that  the 
eulogium  will  not  be  envied  nor  disputed,  that  excite  me  at  present  to 
take  some  particular  notice  of  the  character  of  our  worthy  friend,  who 
now  lies  a  pale  corpse  before  us.  It  is  rather  my  desire  to  concur 
with  the  sentence  of  heaven,  and  to  praise  the  virtue  which  I  cheer- 
fully hope  has  ere  now  received  the  approbation  of  the  Supreme 
Judge.  It  is  my  full  conviction  that  the  character  of  the  deceased  was 
in  many  respects  worthy  of  the  imitation  of  the  living,  and  that  in 
recommending  it,  I  shall  recommend  virtue  and  religion  with  advan- 
tage, as  exemplified  in  life. 

"Indeed,  it  would  have  relieved  me  from  some  anxiety,  if  my  worthy 
friend  had  nominated  some  one  to  this  service,  whose  long  acquaint- 
ance with  him  would  have  enabled  him  to  do  justice  to  his  memory, 
and  exhibit  a  full  view  of  his  character.  During  the  short  time  that 
I  have  been  a  resident  of  this  Province,  he  has  been  my  very  intimate 
friend,  and  I  have  conversed  freely  with  him  in  his  most  unguarded 
hours,  when  his  conversation  was  the  full  image  of  his  soul.  But  I 
had  only  a  general  acquaintance  with  him  for  ten  of  the  years  before, 
and  of  the  earlier  part  of  his  life  I  had  no  personal  knowledge,  and 
have  received  but  a  very  imperfect  account  from  his  earlier  acquaint- 
ances. But  from  what  I  have  heard  from  persons  of  credit,  or  have 
known  myself,  I  shall  give  you  the  following  general  sketch  of  his 
character;  and  as  I  would  by  no  means  incur  the  censure  of  flattery, 
or  risk  the  reputation  of  my  veracity,  you  may  be  assured  I  fully 
believe  myself  in  the  account  I  give  of  his  character. 

"The  Rev.  Mr.  David  Cowell  was  born  at  Dorchester,  in  the  govern- 
ment of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  educated  at  Harvard  College.  I  am 
informed  by  one  of  his  early  friends,  that  the  characteristics  of  his 
youth  were  a  serious,  virtuous,  and  religious  turn  of  mind,  free  from 
the  vices  and  vanities  of  the  wild  and  thoughtless  age,  and  a  remark- 
able thirst  for  knowledge.  The  study  of  books  was  both  his  amuse- 
ment and  serious  business,  while  he  was  passing  through  his  course 
of  collegiate  education,  and  even  before  he  entered  upon  it,  and  I  am 
witness  how  lively  a  taste  for  books  and  knowledge  he  cherished  to 
the  last. 

"I  am  not  able  to  give  you  an  account  of  the  sensations  and  impres- 
sions of  his  mind  from  divine  things  in  early  life,  which  were  the 
beginnings  of  his  religion.  But  as  every  effect  must  have  an  adequate 
cause,  from  what  I  have  observed  in  him  of  the  Christian  temper,  I 
conclude  he  had  been  the  subject  of  such  impressions. 

"He  appeared  to  me  to  have  a  mind  steadily  and  habitually  bent 
towards  God  and  holiness.  If  his  religion  was  not  so  warm  and 
passionate  as  that  of  some,  it  was  perhaps  proportionally  more  evenly 
uniform  and  rational.     He  was  not  flighty  and  visionary,  nor  yet  dull 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  85 

and  senseless.  His  religion  was  not  a  transient  passion,  but  appeared 
to  be  a  settled  temper. 

"Humility  and  modesty,  those  gentle  virtues,  seemed  to  shine  in  him 
with  a  very  amiable  lustre.  Far  from  being  full  of  himself,  far  from 
taking  airs  of  superiority,  or  giving  himself  the  preference,  he  often 
imposed  a  voluntary  silence  upon  himself,  when  he  could  have  made 
an  agreeable  figure  in  conversation.  He  was  fond  of  giving  way  to  his 
brethren,  with  whom  he  might  justly  have  claimed  an  equality,  and 
to  encourage  modest  worth  in  his  inferiors.  He  was  not  impudently 
liberal  of  unasked  advice,  though  very  judicious,  impartial,  and  com- 
municative when  consulted.  He  had  an  easy,  graceful  negligence  in 
his  carriage,  a  noble  indifference  about  setting  himself  off.  And  though 
his  intellectual  furniture,  his  experience  and  seniority  might  have  been 
a  strong  temptation  to  the  usual  foible  of  vanity  and  self-sufficiency, 
I  never  have  seen  anything  in  his  conduct  that  discovered  a  high 
estimate  of  his  own  accomplishments.  Indeed,  he  seemed  not  to  know 
them,  though  they  were  so  conspicuous  that  many  a  man  has  made  a 
very  brilliant  appearance  with  a  small  share  of  them. 

"He  had  a  remarkable  command  of  his  passions.  Nothing  boisterous 
or  impetuous,  nothing  rash  or  fierce,  appeared  in  his  conduct,  even 
in  circumstances  that  would  throw  many  others  into  a  ferment.  Had 
I  not  been  told  by  one  who  has  long  and  intimately  known  him,  that 
he  was  capable  of  a  manly  resentment  upon  proper  occasions,  I  should 
have  concluded  that  he  was  generously  insensible  to  personal  injuries, 
for  I  can  not  recollect  that  ever  I  heard  him  speak  a  severe  word,  or 
discover  the  least  degree  of  anger  against  any  man  upon  earth.  He 
appeared  calm  and  unruffled  amidst  the  storms  of  the  world,  peaceful 
and  serene  amidst  the  commotion  and  uproar  of  human  passions. 

"Far  from  sanguine,  prattling  forwardness,  he  was  remarkably  cau- 
tious and  deliberate ;  slow  to  pronounce,  slow  to  determine,  and  espe- 
cially to  censure,  and  therefore  well  guarded  against  extremes,  and 
the  many  pernicious  consequences  of  precipitant  conclusions. 

"In  matters  of  debate,  and  especially  of  religious  controversy,  he 
was  rather  a  moderator  and  compromiser  than  a  party.  Though  he 
could  not  be  neuter,  but  judged  for  himself  to  direct  his  own  conduct, 
yet  he  did  not  affect  to  impose  his  sentiments  upon  others,  nor  set  up 
his  own  understanding  as  an  universal  standard  of  truth.  He  could 
exercise  candor  and  forbearance  without  constraint  or  reluctance ;  and 
when  he  happened  to  differ  in  opinion  from  any  of  his  brethren,  even 
themselves  could  not  but  acknowledge  and  admire  his  moderation. 

"His  accomplishments  as  a  man  of  sense  and  learning  were  very 
considerable.  His  judgment  was  cool,  deliberate,  and  penetrating. 
His  sentiments  were  well  digested,  and  his  taste  elegant  and  refined. 
He  had  read  not  a  few  of  the  best  modern  authors,  and  though  he 
did  not  often  plod  over  the  mouldy  volumes  of  antiquity,  he  was 
no   stranger  to  ancient  literature,    whether   classical,   philosophical,   or 


86  HISTORY   OF  THE 

historical.  He  could  think  as  well  as  read,  and  the  knowledge  he 
collected  from  books,  was  well  digested,  and  became  his  own.  He  had 
carefully  studied  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  that  grand  accomplishment 
for  a  divine,  and  had  a  rational  theory  of  the  Christian  system. 

"He  had  an  easy,  natural  vein  of  wit,  which  rendered  his  conver- 
sation extremely  agreeable,  and  which  he  sometimes  used  with  great 
dexterity  to  expose  the  rake,  the  fop,  the  infidel,  and  the  other  fools 
of  the  human  species.  But  never  did  his  humanity  allow  him  to  use 
this  keen  weapon  to  wound  a  friend,  or  the  innocent,  whether  friend 
or  foe.  His  wit  was  sacred  to  the  service  of  virtue,  or  innocently 
volatile  and  lively  to  heighten  the  pleasure  of  conversation. 

"He  was  a  lover  of  mankind,  and  delighted  in  every  office  of  benevo- 
lence. Benevolence  appeared  to  me  to  be  his  predominant  virtue^ 
which  gave  a  most  amiable  cast  to  his  whole  temper  and  conduct 
Did  he  ever  refuse  to  give  relief  or  pleasure  to  any  of  his  fellow- 
creatures,  when  it  was  in  his  power  to  do  it?  I  never  had  reason  to 
think  he  did. 

"That  he  might  be  able  to  support  himself,  without  oppressing  a 
small  congregation,  he  applied  some  part  of  his  time  to  the  study  and 
practice  of  physic,  in  which  he  made  no  inconsiderable  figure.  In  this 
he  was  the  friend  of  the  poor,  and  spared  neither  trouble  nor  expense 
to  relieve  them. 

"As  I  never  had  the  happiness  to  hear  him  in  the  sacred  desk,  I 
can  say  but  little  of  him  in  his  highest  character  as  a  minister  of  the 
Gospel.  But  from  what  I  know  of  his  disposition,  theological  knowl- 
edge, and  other  religious  performances,  I  doubt  not  but  his  sermons 
were  judicious,  serious,  well-composed,  and  calculated  to  show  men 
the  way  of  salvation. 

"In  prayer,  I  am  sure,  he  appeared  humble,  solemn,  rational,  and 
importunate,  as  a  creature,  a  sinner  in  the  presence  of  God  ;  without 
levity,  without  affectation,  without   Pharisaical  self-confidence. 

"In  the  charter  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey  he  was  nominated  one 
of  the  trustees,  and  but  few  invested  with  the  same  trust  discharged 
it  with  so  much  zeal,  diligence,  and  alacrity.  His  heart  was  set  upon 
the  prosperity  of  the  infant  institution,  and  he  exerted  himself  in  its 
service,  nor  did  he   forget  it  in  his  last  moments.^ 

"This  church  has  lost  a  judicious  minister  of  the  Gospel,  and,  as 
we  hope,  a  sincere  Christian;  the  world  has  lost  an  inoffensive,  useful 
member  of  society ;  this  town  an  agreeable,  peaceable,  benevolent  in- 
habitant ;  the  College  of  New  Jersey  a  father,  and  I  have  lost  a  friend ; 
and  I  doubt  not  but  public  and  private  sorrow  and  lamentation  will 
be  in  some  measure  correspondent,  and  express  the  greatness  of  the 
loss. 

"Let  us  endeavor,  my  brethren,  to  copy  his  amiable  character,  and 
make  his  virtues  our  own.  The  character,  indeed,  is  not  perfect.  The 
friend,  the  scholar,  the  minister,  the  Christian  was  still  a  man ;  a  man 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  87 

of  like  passions  with  ourselves;  and,  therefore,  he  undoubtedly  had 
his  blemishes  and  infirmities.  He  is  at  best  but  a  sinner  sanctified 
and  saved.  However,  I  shall  not  describe  his  faults,  because  I  hardly 
knew  them,  and  because  greater  can  be  found  almost  everywhere.  His 
virtues  and  graces  are  not  so  common,  and  therefore  I  have  exhibited 
them  to  your  view  for  imitation. 

"With  him  the  dubious  conflict  of  life  is  over,  and  we  hope  he  has 
entered  into  rest,  and  sweetly  fallen  asleep  in  Jesus.  Let  us  also  labor 
to  enter  into  that  rest,  lest  any  of  us  fall  by  unbelief." 

Mr.  Cowell's  body  was  deposited  in  the  church-yard  at 
Trenton,  and  the  grave,  which  is  within  a  few  feet  of  the 
western  wall  of  of  the  church,  is  designated  by  a  head-stone 
with  the  following  inscription : 

"In  memory  of  the 

R£VD.  Mr.  DAVID  COWELL. 

Born  in  Dorchester,  1704. 

Graduated  in  Harvard  College,  Cambridge,   N.   E.,   1732. 

Ordained  at  Trenton,  1736. 

Died  December  the   ist,  ^tatis  suae  56,   1760. 

"A  man  of  penetrating  wit;    solid  judgment;    strong  memory;    yet 

of  great  modesty,  piety,  and  benevolence."^ 

Mr.  Cowell  was  an  industrious  preacher.  There  lies 
before  me  a  memorandum,  kept  by  him,  of  the  places  and 
texts  of  his  preaching,  from  June,  1735,  to  October,  1757.^ 
In  those  twenty-two  years  there  is  seldom  a  Sabbath  with- 
out its  record  of  service,  besides  the  extra  duties  of  sacra- 
mental seasons  and  funerals.  On  a  very  few  Sabbaths  is  the 
entry  of  "non  valui"  (not  well),  and  but  one  or  two  ''pro- 
cellosus"  (stormy).  The  only  observable  blank  is  from 
April  10  to  June  5,  1748,  which  is  accounted  for  by  the  line, 
"went  to  New  England."  He  frequently  administered  the 
Lord's  Supper  at  Maidenhead  and  Hopewell.  Occasionally 
he  supplied  Fisher's  Island,  Rocky  Hill,  Bristol,  Borden- 
town,  Whippany,  Elizabethtown,  Abington,  Norrington, 
Shrewsbury,  Neshaminy.  The  few  notes  of  funerals  in  this 
little  register  may  be  of  some  chronological  use  or  family 
interest.^ 


88  HISTORY    OF   THE 

1736,  July  7.  Mary  Eli. 
1739,  January  31.     Armitage. 
1739,  February  6.     George  Snow. 

1741,  December  26.     Mrs.  Green. 

1742,  January  10.     Widow  Furman. 
1742,  April  14.     Slack's  wife. 

1742,  July  II.     Higbee. 

1742,  September  6.     Margaret. 

1743,  June  16.     Jones's  child. 

1744,  March  21.     Widow  Reed. 
1744,  December  8.     Mr.  Yard. 

1746,  June  17.     Stephen  Rose. 

1747,  September  22.     Mrs.  Snow. 
1747,  October  21.     Mrs.  Yard. 
1749,  July  30.     Hart. 

1749,  November  7.     Howell's  wife. 

1749,  December  19.     Mr.  Griffin. 

1750.  July  18.     Susan  Osborn. 

1750,  September  17.     Mr.  Paxton. 

1751,  January  7.     Mr.  Taylor. 

1752,  May  I.     John  Green. 
1753)  January  2.     Rose's  wife. 
1754,  December  i.     William  Green. 
1756,  September  5.     Mr.  Dagworthy.° 

The  "widow  Furman"  in  the  list  is  commemorated  by 
Profesor  Kahn,  who,  among  other  instances  of  American 
longevity,  states  that  "on  January  8,  1742,  died  in  Trenton 
Mrs.  Sarah  Furman,  a  widow,  aged  ninety-seven  years; 
leaving  alive  at  the  time  of  her  decease  five  children,  sixty- 
one  grandchildren,  one  hundred  and  eighty-two  great- 
grandchildren and  twelve  great-great-grandchildren."*^ 

The  sermon  of  January  31,  1739,  was  preached  at  Pen- 
nington, at  the  interment  of  the  Elder  Enoch  Armitage,'^ 
and  I  quote  a  passage  as  a  specimen  of  the  preacher's  style. 
The  text  was:  "Now  lettest  thou  thy  servant  depart  in 
peace,  according  to  thy  word." 

"The  words  of  our  text  Mr.  Armitage  adopted  as  his  own,  and  de- 
sired they  might  be  discoursed  upon  at  his  funeral.  Those  most 
acquainted  with  him  testified  his  disposition  for  peace.     God  had  given 


Kalm's  Travels,  vol.  ii.  s- 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  89 

him  by  nature  a  calm  and  quiet  spirit,  which  was  his  ornament  and 
glory.  He  was  not  subject  to  anger-heats  and  passions,  as  many  others 
are,  and  this  happy  natural  talent,  assisted  and  improved  by  a  religious 
principle  and  the  love  of  God,  was  so  bright  and  shining,  that  his 
moderation  was  known  to  all  men  who  had  the  happiness  of  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  him.  In  his  deaUngs  he  was  strictly  just  and  honest; 
to  those  in  distress  charitable,  and  ready  to  help  and  assist.  In  his 
conversation  he  was  grave  without  moroseness,  and  pleasant  without 
levity.  From  the  quickness  of  his  wit,  and  the  strength  and  clearness 
of  his  judgment,  he  was  ready  on  all  occasions  to  bring  out  of  the 
good  treasure  of  his  heart  things  new  and  old.  The  sum  of  his  religion 
was  love  to  God  and  his  neighbor,  without  being  rigid  and  contentious 
for  things  indifferent.  The  government  of  his  family  was  with  the 
greatest  economy  and  religious  order.  His  stated  times  for  prayer, 
both  private  and  secret,  his  times  for  instructing  his  family,  for  taking 
refreshment,  and  his  times  for  following  the  works  of  his  calling,  fol- 
lowed one  another  so  constantly  by  turns,  and  in  the  revolution  of 
such  certain  periods,  that  they  seldom  interfered,  much  less  jostled  out 
each  other ;  and  such  a  vein  of  religion  ran  through  the  whole,  that 
his  life  was  like  the  life  of  Enoch,  whose  name  he  bore,  a  walking  with 
God.  If  we  consider  him  at  church,  we  shall  find  he  was  constant  and 
devout  in  attendance  upon  God's  public  worship.  In  the  management 
of  church  affairs,  which  was  early  committed  to  him,  and  continued  to 
the  last,  he  deservedly  obtained  that  character  of  a  good  steward  to 
be  faithful;  and  as  his  management  was  the  product  of  religious  prin- 
ciples and  a  sound  judgment,  he  had  the  satisfaction  to  see  them  ap- 
proved by  the  wisest  men  and  the  best  Christians.  Such  a  religious, 
honest,  and  just  walk  in  his  own  house,  and  in  the  house  of  God, 
procured  to  him  the  esteem  of  persons  of  all  persuasions  and  all  char- 
acters. If  he  was  maligned  by  any  self-conceited  brethren,  who  run 
their  own  ways,  and  give  liking  unto  nothing  but  what  is  framed  by 
themselves,  and  hammered  on  their  anvil,  as  their  ignorance  was  the 
cause,  so  that  only  can  plead  their  excuse.  A  sovereign  God  gave  him 
such  a  fiducial  sight  of  Christ,  and  his  own  interest  in  him  founded 
on  the  divine  promises,  that  he  adopted  the  words  of  good  old  Simeon 
for  his  own.  He  made  it  the  business  of  his  life  to  follow  peace  with 
all  men,  and  it  was  his  grief  his  endeavors  succeeded  no  better.  He 
desired  to  die  in  peace,  and  to  have  a  hopeful  prospect  of  peace  after 
his  death.  With  respect  to  himself,  his  prayer  was  eminently  an- 
swered. When  he  passed  through  the  valley  of  death,  God  was  with 
him.  Death  gave  one  friendly  stroke,  and  it  was  over — so  that  he 
rather  seemed  to  conquer,  than  to  be  overcome." 

One  of  the  sermons  is  marked  as  preached  on  Friday, 
November  23,  1739,  from  the  text  of  the  crucified  thieves, 


go  HISTORY    OF   THE 

and  a  note  is  appended,  "Execution,  Trenton."  This  was 
the  execution  which  brought  Whitefield  to  Trenton  on  the 
2ist  O'f  November,  as  already  quoted  from  his  journal. 

The  only  names  of  ministers  that  appear  as  relieving- 
him  in  his  own  pulpit  through  all  those  years,  are  Guild, 
Huston,  Leonard,  Miller,  Phillips  of  Boston,  Munson  of 
New  England,  and  Spencer. 

Mr.  Cowell  bequeathed  fifty  pounds  tO'  "the  Presbyterian 
congregation  of  Trenton  ;  the  principal  tO'  remain  good,  and 
the  interest  thereof  tO'  be  applied  for  the  benefit  of  the  con- 
gregation forever."  He  left  an  equal  sum  to'  the  College  of 
New  Jersey.  The  will  was  signed  only  four  days  before 
his  death,  "being  sick  and  weak  in  body,  but  O'f  perfect  mind 
and  memory,"  and  was  witnessed  by  Samuel  Tucker,  Jr.,, 
Arthur  Howell,  Benjamin  Yard,^  and  George  Davis.  Many 
of  the  wills  recorded  at  that  time  have  the  same  religious 
phraseology  as  that  of  Mr.  Cowell,  the  testamentary  part  of 
which  begins  thus :  "Principally  and  first  of  all  I  give  and 
recommend  my  soul  into  the  hands  of  God  that  gave  it;  and 
for  my  body,  I  commit  it  to  the  earth,  to  be  buried  in  a  Chris- 
tianly  and  decent  manner,  nothing  doubting  but  at  the  gen- 
eral resurrection,  I  shall  receive  the  samie  again  by  the 
mighty  power  of  God."  It  is  toi  be  feared  that  the  scrive- 
ners' pious  formulas  are  not  always  subscribed  by  testators 
with  as  much  sincerity,  as  they  doubtless  were  in  this  good 
man's  case.^ 

Among  the  few  extant  manuscripts  of  Mr.  Cowell  is  a 
fragment  of  notes  of  a  funeral  sermon,  marked  as  preached 
April  I,  1744,  at  the  "burying  of  Mr.  Home."  It  con- 
tains an  expression  of  the  preacher's  intention  "not  toi  make 
encomiums  ou  the  Honorable  person  to  whose  remains  we 
have  been  paying  the  last  friendly  office.  That  is  a  task  to 
which  I  am  on  several  accounts  unequal.  Besides,  I 
humbly  conceive  the  proper  use  to  be  made  o^f  instances  o^f 
mortality,  is  to  instruct  and  exhort  the  living,  according  to 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  91 

that  of  the  wise  men,  Eccles.  y:2."  This  defunct  was 
undoubtedly  Mr.  Archibald  Home/^  who  was  Deputy  Sec- 
retary of  the  Province  in  the  time  of  Governor  Morris,  and 
whoi  upon  his  recommendation  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  (Oc- 
tober 18,  1740)  was  appointed  to  a  seat  in  the  Council, 
made  vacant  by  the  death  of  Robert  Lettis  Hooper.* 

When  the  church  was  taken  down  in  1805,  a  vault  was 
discovered  under  the  broad  aisle,  containing-  the  remains  of 
two  bodies  in  their  respective  coffins,  the  "dress  and  furni- 
ture" O'f  which  (according  to-  the  papers  oif  the  day),  "and 
the  habilimients  of  the  corpses,  denoted  them  to  have  been 
persons  O'f  distinction."!  A  year  after  the  discovery,  an- 
other newspaper  made  this  publication :  "A  gentleman,  on 
whom  we  can  rely,  and  who'  says  he  will  vouch  for  the 
authenticity  oi  his  statement,  info'rms  us,  that  the  namie  of 
one  of  the  persons  found  in  the  vault  was  FrEEman,  a  man 
of  considerable  connections  in  the  West  Indies,  who  re- 
moved to  and  resided  at  Bloomsbury  with  his  family,  and 
was  interred  about  seventy  years  ago.  The  other  was 
ARCHIBALD'  Hume,  Esquire,  a  Scotchman  oi  very  consider- 
able literary  acquirements,  and  brother  tO'  the  celebrated 
Sir  John  Hume,^^  who  came  over  and  resided  in  Trenton 
some  months  after  the  decease  of  his  brother."! 

I  have  seen  the  will  of  Archibald  Home,^^  which  was 
made  February  24,  1743.  The  device  of  the  testator's  seal  is 
an  adder  holding  a  rose,  which  is  the  crest  of  a  Home 
family,  in  which  there  are  several  baronets  nam-ed  Sir  John ; 
but  I  cannot  find  any  trace  of  such  a  resident  in  Trenton. 
Mr.  Archibald  Home  bequeathed  all  his  property  tO'  his 
brother  James  Home,  Esq.,  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 


*  The  Papers  of  Lewis  Morris,  pp.  122,  137,  219,  283.  Analytical  Index,  180, 
181,  182,   193,   194.     New  Jersey  Archives,  vol.  vi.,   109,   127,  237. 

t  Trenton  Federalist,  April  22,   1805. 

t  Trenton  True  American,  April  21,  1806.  "Home,"  or  "Hume,"  is  the  same 
family-name.  "My  father's  family  is  a  branch  of  the  Earl  of  Home's  or  Hume's." 
{Autobiography  of  David  Hume.) 


92         HISTORY    OF   FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH. 

His  executors  were  Robert  Hunter  Morris,  Thomas  Cad- 
walader,  and  the  legatee.  The  witnesses  to  the  will  were 
Joseph  Paxton  and  Moreton  Appleby.  The  probate  was 
certified  October  5,  1744,  by  "Jamts  Home,  Secr'y," 
This  suggests  the  conjecture  that  he  was  the  brother  re- 
ported in  the  newspaper  as  "Sir  John,"  and  that  upon  re- 
moving from  Charleston  to  Trenton,  upon  Archibald's  de- 
cease, he  was  put  into  the  vacant  secretaryship. 

There  is  a  tradition  that  connects  one  of  the  bodies  in 
the  vault  with  the  family  of  Governor  Cosby.  I  supposed 
this  to  be  a  mistake  of  the  name  of  Cosby  for  Morris,  and 
that  the  person  referred  to  was  Mr.  Home,  until  I  found 
the  following  item  in  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette,  of  March 
7-14-  1737-38: 

"We  learn  from  Trenton  that  Thomas  Freeman,  Esquire,  son-in-law 
to  the  late  Governor  Cosby,  died  there  on  Saturday  last  after  a  few 
hours'  illness." 

This  would  reconcile  the  tradition  with  the  newspaper 
paragraphs,  and  appears  to  identify  the  body.  It  is  part  of 
the  old  report,  that  one  of  the  interments  was  by  torch-light. 
Mr.  Cowell's  memorandum  shows,  that  Mr.  Home's  funeral 
sermon  was  on  Sunday,  and  was  a  second  service  on  that 
day.  On  the  removal  of  the  site  of  the  church  in  1839,  the 
vault  was  a  second  time  examined,  before  it  was  carefully 
closed,  but  neither  the  inscription  nor  arms  upon  the  mould- 
ering plate  that  was  found  in  it,  could  be  deciphered.  That 
could  scarcely  have  been  a  family  vault,  in  which  any  con- 
nections of  such  enemies  as  Morris  and  Cosby  would  be 
associated.* 


*  Governor  Cosby's  wife  was  a  daughter  of  Lord  Halifax.  Their  eldest  daugh- 
ter was  married  to  a  younger  son  of  the  Duke  of  Grafton.  See  "Autobiography 
and  Correspondence  of  Mrs.   Delany,"    i :  442. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  First  Charter  oe  the  Trenton  Church — 
Trustees. 

1756 — 1760. 

'It  was  during  the  pastorate  of  Mr.  Co  well  that  the  first 
charter  of  incorporation  was  obtained,  and  his  name  stands 
first  among  the  corporators.  The  date  of  this  instrument 
is  September  8,  1756.  It  runs  in  the  name  of  George  the 
Second,  through  the  Provincial  Governor  Belcher,  and  in- 
corporates 

The  Rev.  David  Cowell, 

Charles  Clark, 

Andrew  Reed, 

Joseph  Yard, 

Arthur  Howell, 

William  Green, 

Alexander  Chambers, 

and  their  successors,  by  the  name  of  "The  Trustees  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Trenton."  The  charter  follows  the 
phraseology  of  others  given  to  our  churches  under  the  same 
administration,*  in  the  preambulary  acknowledgment  that 
"the  advancement  of  true  religion  and  virtue  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  promotion  of  the  peace,  order  and  pros- 
perity of  the  State,  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  all  Christian 
Princes  and  Governors,  by  the  law  of  God,  to  do  all  they 
can  for  the  encouragement  thereof" ;  and  also  that  "the 
known  loyalty  of  the  petitioners,  and  the  Presbyterians  in 
general,  to  us,  their  firm  affection  tO'  our  person  and  gov- 


See  Murray's   "Elizabethtown,"   p.   62.      Steam's  "Newark,"   p.    193. 

(93) 


94  HISTORY    OF   THE 

ernment,  and  the  Protestant  succession  in  our  royal  house, 
gave  the  petitioners  hopes  of  all  reasonable  indulgence  and 
favor  within  the  same  colony,  where  the  religious  rights  of 
mankind  are  so  happily  preserved,  and  where  our  equal 
grace  and  bounty  to^  all  our  Protestant  faithful  subjects, 
however  differing  in  opinion  about  lesser  matters,  has 
hitherto  been  sO'  sensibly  felt  and  enjoyed." 

Of  the  lay  members  of  the  first  Board  of  Trustees  I 
herewith  furnish  all  the  information  within  my  reach. 

Chari^ES  Clark  came  to  Trenton  from  Long  Island, 
and  occupied  a  farmi  in  the  township  near  the  country 
church.  He  is  recorded  as  present  at  every  meeting  of 
the  Trustees  from  1757  tO'  1775.  On  the  night  of  the 
battle  of  Trenton,  December  26,  1776,  he  met  his  death  by 
falling  into  the  fire  oi  his  own  hearth.^  In  1777  his  son, 
Benjamin,  was  elected  a  Trustee  in  his  place.  Another  son, 
Daniel,  was  in  the  Board  with  his  father  fromi  1766  to 
1788.  At  the  annual  meeting  of  1777.  "Daniel  Clark  and 
Benjamin  Clark  informed  the  Board  that  their  father, 
Charles  Clark,  Esq.,  deceased,  had  left  the  congregation 
twenty  pounds,  to  be  put  at  interest,  the  interest  to  be  an- 
nually applied  towards  the  support  of  their  minister.  They 
produced  the  will  O'f  their  late  father,  and  paid  the  twenty 
pounds  to  Mr.  Alexander  Chambers,  who  put  the  same  to 
interest  to  Mr.  John  Howell,  at  six  per  cent." 

Benjamin  died  November  25,  1785,  in  his  fifty-fifth  year. 
The  Gazette  of  the  week  says :  "He  served  in  the  magis- 
tracy with  reputation,  both  before  and  since  the  Revolu- 
tion. The  estim.ation  he  was  held  in  by  the  neighborhood 
was  manifest  from^  the  numerous  and  respectable  attend- 
ants on  his  funeral,  and  his  loss  will  be  sensibly  felt,  not 
only  by  his  family,  but  by  the  Church,  and  the  county  in 
which  he  lived." 

Of  Andrew  Rked.  the  next  on  the  list  of  Trustees,  I 
have  given  all  I  know  in  a  previous  chapter.     There  are 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  95 

stones  in  the  Trenton  church-yard  marked  Sarah,  wife  of 
Andrew  Reed,  March  15,  1739;  Ainn,  daughter  of  Andrew 
Reed,  July  4,  1757,  set  14;  and  three  infant  Reeds,  Francis, 
September  12,  1747;  Thoma.s,  February  7,  1754;  Andrew 
Jr.,  July  7,  1758. 

Joseph  Yard  belonged  to  a  family  which  appears  among 
the  earliest  settlers  of  Trenton,  and  spread  intO'  numerous 
branches.^  It  is  said  that  there  was  a  doubt  whether  the 
name  of  Yard  had  not  a  superior  claim  to  that  of  Trent 
for  the  new  locality.  Our  trustee  came  from  England 
with  his  four  brothers,  Benjamin,  William,  John  and  Jethro. 
Benjamin  was  an  elder  of  this  church  in  1765,  and  it  is 
probably  his  death  which  is  recorded  as  having  taken  place 
in  October,  1808,  in  his  ninety- fourth  year.  Joseph  acted 
as  trustee  until  1762,  and  was  Clerk  of  the  Board. 

Arthur  Howell's  name  appears  on  the  minutes  of 
May  8,  1762,  for  the  last  time.  On  the  sixth  of  Decem- 
ber of  that  year  his  will  was  before  the  surrogate.  His 
"trusty  and  beloved  friend,  Obadiah  Howell,"  was  one 
of  his  executors. 

WiivUAM  Green  was  in  office  until  1764.  This  family, 
like  the  Howells  and  Yards,  is  too  ramified  to  be  traced 
for  any  object  of  the  present  work. 

Alexander  Chambers,  the  last-named  corporator,  be- 
longed to  a  family  which  has  its  fifth  and  sixth  generations 
to  represent  it  at  this  time.  I  avail  myself  of  a  paper  pre- 
pared by  Mr.  John  S.  Chambers,  to  furnish  all  the  informa- 
tion necessary  to'  my  purpose. 

"John  Chambers,  the  ancestor  of  the  Chambers  family  of  Trenton, 
came  to  America  from  the  county  of  Antrim  in  the  north  of  Ireland, 
about  the  year  1730. 

"His  tombstone  stands  near  the  present  church  edifice  in  good  pres- 
ervation, by  the  inscription  on  which  it  appears  that  he  died  September 
19th,  1747,  at  the  age  of  seventy  years. 

"He  had  several  children,  of  whom  his  son  Alexander  continued  to 
live  in  Trenton.     Alexander  was  his  second  son,  and  was  born  in  Ire- 


96  HISTORY    OF   T?IE 

land  in  the  year  1716.  He  was  one  of  the  first  trustees  named  in  the 
Charter  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Trenton,  given  from  the  King 
through  Governor  Belcher,  and  held  the  office  from  September  8th, 
1756,  until  his  death,  September  i6th,  1798,  a  period  of  forty-two  years, 
during  all  which  time,  as  is  shown  by  the  Trustees'  Book  of  Minutes, 
his  name  is  recorded  as  present  at  every  meeting  of  the  Board.  He 
was  elected  Treasurer  of  the  Board  May  6th,  1766,  and  performed  the 
duties  of  that  office  till  August  ist,  1796,  a  period  of  thirty  years, 
when  he  resigned  on  account  of  his  advancing  age.  He  was  also 
chosen  President  of  the  Board  on  the  5th  of  May,  1783,  which  office 
he  filled  till  his  death,  a  period  of  fifteen  years. 

"He  was  by  occupation  a  turner,  spinning-wheel  and  chair-maker. 
He  built  the  brick  house  on  the  corner  of  State  and  Willow  streets, 
for  many  years  used  as  a  store,  and  known  as  Chambers'  Corner,  and 
carried  on  store-keeping  in  the  old  mud  house  built  by  his  father, 
which  stood  adjoining. 

"He  died  September  i6th,  1798,  at  the  age  of  eighty-two,  and  lies 
buried  near  his  father  in  the  churchyard.  The  first  bequest  in  his  will 
is  in  these  words : 

"  'Item.  I  give  unto  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Trenton,  Thirty 
Pounds,  to  be  put  at  interest,  and  the  interest  to  go  towards  the  sup- 
port of  a  minister,  said  Thirty  Pounds  to  be  paid  to  the  Trustees  one 
year  after  my  decease.' 

"Alexander  Chambers  left  several  children.  Two  of  the  sons,  John 
and  Alexander,  remained  in  Trenton.  John  carried  on  the  trade  of 
his  father  at  his  own  shop  at  the  head  of  town  in  Warren  street. 
Alexander  converted  the  brick  house  built  by  his  father  on  the  corner 
of  State  and  Willow  streets  into  a  store,  and  carried  on  an  extensive 
business  for  many  years.  He  was  the  first  to  establish  Bloomsbury 
as  a  port  for  sloops,  and  built  a  wharf  and  storehouse  there  about 
the  year  1803;  the  transportation  business  having  been  previously  con- 
ducted at  Lamberton,  about  a  mile  below. 

"On  the  7th  of  August,  1799,  about  a  year  after  the  death  of  his 
father,  he  was  chosen  a  Trustee,  and  so  continued  till  his  death  in 
1824,  a  period  of  twenty-five  years.  John  S.  Chambers,  son  of  the 
last-mentioned  John  Chambers,  was  chosen  a  Trustee  November  24th, 
1823,  and  so  continued  till  his  death  in  November,  1834,  a  period  of 
eleven  years ;  for  the  last  two  of  which  he  was  also  President  of  the 
Board,  having  been  elected  to  that  office  October  13th,  1832." 

To  this  I  may  add  that  the  son  of  the  last-named,  who 
furnishes  this  paper,  is  the  present  Clerk  of  the  Board. 
There  was  a  John  Chambers  in  the  eldership  in  1760-4.* 
My  correspondent  says : 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  97 

"I  have  not  yet  ascertained  who  the  elder,  John  Chambers,  was.  It 
is  evident  from  the  dates  he  could  not  have  been  the  ancestor  who 
first  came  over,  as  I  at  first  supposed." 

According  to  the  terms  of  the  charter,  the  seven  trustees 
were  to  hold  their  office  until  the  first  Tuesday  of  June. 
1757,  when  and  thereafter  the  trustees  were  to  be  elected 
by  "the  Minister,  Elders,  and  Deacons  of  the  said  Presby- 
terian Church  and  Congregation."  This  unpopular  feature 
of  ecclesiastical  corporations  passed  away  in  due  time,  to- 
gether with  the  loyalty  to  the  house  of  Hanover;  but  the 
minister,  elders  and  deacons  continued,  until  after  the  in- 
dependence, to  elect  the  trustees,  of  whom  the  minister 
himself  was  usually  one,  and  also  President  of  the  Board. 
As  such,  he  was  constituted  by  the  charter  keeper  of  the 
books,  seal  and  all  papers  of  the  corporation.*  In  1760  the 
pastor  was  Treasurer  as  well  as  President. 

In  1760,  June  12,  John  Chambers,  John  Hendrickson  and 
Stephen  Rose  were  "chosen  elders,"  and  on  the  same  day  is 
this  entry  on  the  trustees'  minutes :  "Memorandum,  that  it 
Is  agreed  by  the  congregation  now  met,  that  the  Presby- 
terian Congregation  of  Trenton  shall  annually  meet  on  the 
first  Tuesday  in  June  to  choose  elders,  and  that  then  the 
minister,  elders  and  deacons  shall  proceed  to  the  choice  of 
trustees  of  said  Presbyterian  church."  From  this  provision, 
and  occasional  subsequent  records,  it  seems  that  there  was 
for  a  time  a  departure  from  the  principle  of  our  church  that 
the  lay-eldership,  like  the  clerical,  is  perpetual,  and  is  not 
open,  even  as  to  the  exercise  of  the  office,  to  repeated  elec- 
tions, as  is  the  custom  of  our  sister  Presbyterian  Church,  the 
Reformed  Dutch.  It  must  be  remembered  that  this  was 
nearly  thirty  years  before  the  constitution  of  our  American 
Church  was  framed. 


*  The   original    Charter   is   still   preserved.      It   is    recorded   in    Book    Q,    p.    163, 
State  House. 

7    PRES 


98        HISTORY   OF   FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH. 

In  1760  the  name  of  Moore  Furman  appears  in  the  Board 
in  the  place  of  Andrew  Reed.  In  1762  Obadiah  Howell 
filled  the  vacancy  made  by  the  death  of  Mr.  Cowell.  A 
personal  notice  of  Mr.  Furman  will  come  in  more  appropri- 
ately under  a  later  date.  Obadiah  Howell  was  a  trustee 
until  1770.  He  lived  on  a  farm  which  is  still  in  the  family 
on  the  Scotch  road  on  the  borders  of  Trenton, 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Ministry  oe^  the  Rev.  Wieeiam  Kirkpatrick — His 
History. 

1760 — 1766. 

Soon  after  the  Rev.  Mr.  Cowell's  withdrawal  from  the 
pastorate,  and  before  his  decease,  the  attention  of  the  people, 
perhaps  at  his  suggestion,  was  turned  towards  Mr.  Wii<- 
iviAM  Kirkpatrick  as  his  successor. 

Neiher  the  place  nor  time  of  Mr.  Kirkpatrick's  birth  is 
known.  Judging  from  his  age,  as  given  without  dates  on 
his  grave-stone,  he  was  born  about  1726.  He  probably  had 
not  a  liberal  education  at  the  usual  age,  as  he  was  at  least 
thirty  years  old  when  he  took  his  Bachelor's  degree  at 
Princeton.^  This  was  with  the  class  of  1757,  which  was 
graduated  in  the  year  after  the  college  was  removed  from 
Newark  to  Princeton,  and  in  which  its  distinguished  Presi- 
dent, Aaron  Burr,  died.  Among  his  classmates  were  the 
young  men  afterwards  eminent  Governor  Joseph  Reed,  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  the  Rev.  Alexander  Macwhorter,  D.D., 
and  in  the  class  next  below  his  were  John  V.  and  William 
Tennent,  sons  of  the  Rev.  William  Tennent,  Jr.  It  was  in 
the  March  of  that  year  that  the  College  was  blessed  (accord- 
ing to  the  language  of  Gilbert  Tennent)  with  "an  extra- 
ordinary appearance  of  the  divine  power  and  presence 
there."^  In  the  next  year  (June  13  and  14,  1758).  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Presbyter}^  of  New  Brunswick,  which  was 
the  first  after  the  union  of  the  Synods  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia,  and  when  Messrs.  Cowell  and  Guild  had  been 

(99) 


TOO  HISTORY    OF   THE 

transferred  to  it  from  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  Kirk- 
patrick^  and  Macwhorter  were  taken  under  trials  as  candi- 
dates for  the  ministry.  Upon  their  preliminary  examination 
the  Presbytery  pronounced  themselves  "well  pleased  that 
they  can  with  so  great  freedom  encourage  them  in  their 
design."  The  theme  for  Kirkpatrick's  exegesis  was  "an 
certitudo  suhjectiva  salutis  sit  de  essentia  fidei  jusiificantis" ; 
his  trial  text  was  Rom.  3  :  28.  On  the  25th  of  the  next 
month  the  Presbytery  met  at  Princeton,  when  no  other 
business  was  attended  to  but  the  hearing  and  approving  of 
the  compositions  of  the  two  candidates,  and  giving  them 
texts  for  further  exercises.  These  were  heard  on  the  15th 
August,  at  Princeton;  Kirkpatrick's  second  trial  text  was 
Philippians  4:5;  and  the  course  of  trials  being  completed, 
they  were  licensed,  and  both  of  them  were  immediately  sent 
out  to  supply  vacant  congregations  till  the  Fall  Presbytery. 
Kirkpatrick's  appointments  were  to  Oxford,  Forks  of  Dela- 
ware, Greenwich,  Bethlehem,  Kingwood,  and  wherever  else 
he  should  find  opportunity.  In  October  he  was  appointed 
to  the  same  circuit,  with  Shrewsbury  added  to  the  places 
named. 

In  the  early  part  of  1759  he  wrote  the  following  letter  to 
Dr.  Bellamy,  of  Connecticut  :* 

"Newark,  Feb.  12,  1759. 

"Rev.  and  worthy  Sir:  I  think,  if  I  remember  right,  I  came  under 
a  promise  of  writing  to  you,  which,  if  made,  I  am  now  about  to  fulfill. 

"I  remember  we  had  some  conversation  about  George's  Town  on 
Kennebeck  river  when  I  was  with  you.  I  have  since  seen  a  man  who 
once  lived  on  the  spot,  who  seems  to  be  an  intelligent,  sober  man,  and 
his  account  of  that  people  discourages  from  thoughts  of  settling  there. 
He  says  they  are  a  remarkably  contentious,  brawling,  difficult  people, 
and  that  no  minister  can  have  any  comfort,  or  be  long  useful  with 
them.  I  have'  had  an  invitation  from  the  Presbytery  of  New  Castle, 
(of  which  Mr.  Finley  is  a  member,)  to  come  under  their  care,  and 
settle  among  them,  should  Providence  open  a  way  for  it.     Likewise  I 


*  In    the    manuscript    collections    of    the    Presbyterian    Historical    Society,    Phila- 
delphia. 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  loi 

have  had  a  probationary  call  from  a  place  under  the  care  of  our  own 
Presbytery,  (viz..  New  Brunswick).  And  another  of  the  same  kind 
from  a  congregation  near  EHzabethtown  in  York  Presbytery  bounds. 
I  have  not  yet  seen  my  way  clear  to  accept  of  an  invitation  from  any 
of  these  places,  but  continue  to  itinerate  among  the  small  vacancies 
towards  the  frontiers  of  this  Province.  If  any  door  of  more  extensive 
usefulness  opens  with  you,  I  would  be  very  glad  if  you  would  take 
care  to  inform  me ;  my  inclinations  lead  me  much  to  New  England. 
If  you  can  send  a  letter  to  this  place  from  whence  I  write,  or  to  Mr. 
Hazard's  in  New  York,  directed  to  me  at  Princeton,  it  will  soon  come 
to  hand.  However  the  matter  stands,  I  would,  be  very  glad  of  a  letter 
from  you,  at  least  before  the  sitting  of  our  Presbytery,  (the  third  week 
in  June). 

"I  am  lately  informed  that  some  of  the  trustees  of  our  College  have 
sent  a  messenger  yesterday  to  Mr.  Davies,  a  third  time  to  invite  him 
to  the  Presidentship  of  our  College,  after  two  former  denials — we  wait 
the  event.  Mr.  Green  presides  pro  tempore.  I  have  lately  heard  from 
good  Mr.  Finley  that  he  is  well. 

"Religion  is  here  at  a  low  ebb.  Truth  is  fallen  in  the  streets,  and 
equity  can  not  enter.  Christians  fallen  from  their  first  love,  and  vice 
triumphant.    A  spirit  of  deadness  prevails.    How  long.  Lord,  how  long? 

"But  being  in  great  hurry,  I  can  not  add  any  more,  but  salutations  to 
Mrs.  Bellamy,  best  respects  to  Mr.  Wells  and  Mr.  Day,  with  affec- 
;ionate  duty  and  regard  to  yourself  from 

"Rev.  sir,  your  unworthy  son  and  servant, 

"Wm.    Kirkpatrick." 

In  June,  1759,  the  united  congregations  of  Bethlehem 
and  Kingwood  brought  a  call  for  Mr.  Kirkpatrick.  There 
was  also  a  request  or  "supplication,"  as  such  petitions  were 
called,  from  the  people  of  Tohikan  (or  Tehicken  or  Tini- 
cum)  that  he  should  supply  their  pulpit.  But  the  Synod, 
which  in  those  days  often  exercised  what  are  now  con- 
sidered Presbyterial  prerogatives,  had,  in  its  sessions  a 
month  before,  made  other  arrangements  for  the  Presby- 
tery's probationer.'*  It  "ordered,  that  Messrs,  Macwhorter, 
Kirkpatrick,  and  Latta,  take  a  journey  to  Virginia  and  Caro- 
lina, as  soon  as  they  can  this  summer,  or  ensuing  fall,  and 
spend  some  months  in  those  parts" ;  and  the  Synod  "fur- 
ther considering  the  destitute  condition  O'f  Hanover,  and  the 
uncertainty  of  their  being  supplied,  if  suppliers  are  left  to 


I02  HISTORY   OF  THE 

their  own  discretion,  respecting  the  time  of  their  going  to 
Virginia,"  directed  that  Kirkpatrick  should  be  at  Hanover 
by  the  third  Sabbath  of  July,  to  be  followed  by  the  two 
other  licentiates  in  September  and  November;  and  their 
respective  Presbyteries  were  counselled  to  "take  care  that 
these  gentlemen  fulfill  this  appointment,  and  neither  pre- 
scribe nor  allow  them  employment  in  our  bounds,  so'  as  to 
disappoint  this  our  good  intention."  The  direction  oi  their 
work  was  to  lie  with  the  Presbytery  of  Hanover,  which  be- 
longed to  the  same  Synod.  Deferring  toi  the  superior  au- 
thority, the  Presbytery  took  no  oi'der  upon  the  Tohikan 
supplication,  but  directed  their  two  probationers  toi  supply 
vacancies  as  far  as  they  could  before  their  journey  South, 

In  view  of  their  mission,  the  Presbytery  determined  to 
hasten  their  ordination.  They  gave  to  Kirkpatrick  for  his 
trial  sermon  the  text,  "The  poor  have  the  Go'spel  preached 
to  them" ;  and  for  a  Latin  exegesis,  the  perseverance  of  the 
saints.''  These  were  presented  at  Cranbury,  July  4,  1759, 
and  both  Kirkpatrick  and  Macwhorter  were  ordained  O'U 
that  day.  After  all,  none  of  the  three  fulfilled  the  Synod's 
appointment;  but  whatever  were  their  reasons  (Macwhor- 
ter's  was  his  call  to  Newark),  they  were  admitted  to  be 
sufficient  by  the  Synod,  at  their  annual  meeting  in  1760. 
Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  in  the  meantime,  had  declined  the  Bethle- 
hem and  Kingwood  call ;  and  had  received  one  from  Han- 
over, Virginia. 

The  Trenton  congregation  now  first  signified  their  in- 
clination to  him.  On  the  day  (March  11,  1760)  on  which 
the  Presbytery  released  Mr.  Cowell  from  that  charge,  they 
were  petitioned  to  send  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  to  supply  the  pulpit, 
and  he  was  accordingly  directed  to  preach  there  "as  many 
Sabbaths  as  may  consist  with  his  other  obligations  between 
this  and  the  next  Presbytery." 

But  another  and  different  kind  of  field  was  inviting  him. 
The  French  war,  though  near  its  close,  was  still  calling  out 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  103 

the  loyal  colonists  tO'  the  frontiers.  Kirkpatrick,  through 
his  associations  with  Hanover  Presbytery,  may  have  caught 
the  martial  spirit  of  such  sermons  of  Davies,  as  the  one  we 
read  "on  the  curse  of  cowardice,"  preached  "at  a  general 
muster.  May  8th,  1758,  with  a  view  to  raise  a  company  for 
Captain  Samuel  Meredith,"  or  the  one  "preached  tO'  Cap- 
tain Overton's  independent  company  oi  volunteers."  But 
in  the  French  and  Revolutionary  wars  our  clergymen  re- 
quired no  special  stimulus  to  accompany  the  troops,  at  least 
as  chaplains.  All  we  know  of  Kirkpatrick's  engagement  is 
derived  from  this  entry  on  the  minutes  of  his  Synod,  May 
21,  1760: 

'"Tis  allowed  that  Messrs.  Alexander  McDowel  and  Hector  Alison 
go  as  chaplains  to  the  Pennsylvania  forces,  and  that  Mr.  Kirkpatrick 
go  with  the  New  Jersey  forces,  the  ensuing  campaign."* 

That  his  absence  was  not  expected  to  be  long,  is  intimated 
by  the  recommendation  subjoined  by  the  Synod,  "that  Mr. 
Kirkpatrick  pay  a  visit  to  the  people  of  Windham  on  his 
return."  If  he  went  at  the  time  mentioned,  he  was  back  in 
season  for  the  meeting  of  Presbytery  in  Princeton,  Febru- 
ary 3d,  1 761,  at  which  he  was  clerk. 

Supplications  were  made  to  Presbytery  from  various 
quarters  for  his  services  as  a  supply,  or  as  a  candidate  for 
settlement;  and  on  the  28th  April,  1761,  a  regular  call  was 
presented  from  the  Trenton  congregation.  No  further 
order  was  taken  in  regard  to  it  at  that  meeting,  but  it  was 
probably  with  a  view  of  affording  an  opportunity  of  making 
up  his  mind,  that  the  Presbytery  appointed  Mr.  Parkhurst, 
a  new  licentiate,  to  supply  four  Sabbaths  at  Trenton,  and 
deferred  giving  Kirkpatrick  any  appointment  till  the  meet- 
ing in  the  intervals  of  the  next  Synod. 

At  that  Synod  (May,  1761)  we  find  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  one 
of  a  committee  of  nine  to  whom  was  referred  the  considera- 
tion of  what  was  to  be  done  for  the  better  support  of  John 


I04  HISTORY   OF  THE 

Brainerd,  who  had  left  Newark  at  the  solicitation  of  the 
Indians,  made  destitute  by  the  death  of  his  brother  David, 
and  had  become  his  successor  in  the  mission.  Cro'sswicks, 
a  place  hallowed  in  the  memory  of  the  whole  Church  by 
these  associations,  is  but  eight  miles  from  Trenton,  and 
Mr.  Kirkpatrick  appears  tO'  have  had  the  leading  of  the 
business  devolved  on  him,  as,  though  last-named  on  the 
committee,  the  overture,  urging  an  addition  to  the  mission- 
ary force  as  well  as  the  funds,  is  minuted  as  coming  from 
him.  The  Synod,  however,  concluded  that  as,  after  all  their 
inquiry,  no  new  missionary  presented  himself,  they  could 
do  no  more  than  direct  a  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  to^  be 
raised  for  Mr.  Brainerd  for  the  ensuing  year.  Two  years 
after  this  (May,  1763),  when  the  Synod  appointed  Messrs. 
Brainerd  and  Beatty  to  visit  "the  distressed  frontier  inhabi- 
tants and  to  report  their  distresses,"  and  also'  what  oppor- 
tunities were  opened  for  the  Gospel  among  the  Indian  na- 
tions, Mr.  Kirkpatrick  was  made  the  alternate  of  either 
who  might  fail.'^ 

Between  the  hours  occupied  by  the  Synod  at  the  session 
of  1 76 1,  the  Presbytery  had  a  special  meeting,  in  the  pro- 
ceedings of  which  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  was  an  interested  party. 
The  minutes,  drawn  probably  by  his  own  hand,  as  he  was 
clerk,  are  thus : 

"Applications  were  made  from  EHzabethtown,  Brunswick,  and  Deer- 
field  for  the  labors  of  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  till  our  next  Fall  Presbytery. 
The  Presbytery  conclude  to  leave  the  disposal  of  his  time  entirely  to 
himself,  as  he  is  supposed  to  be  best  acquainted  with  the  necessity  of 
these  vacancies;  and  the  Presbytery  advise  these  vacancies  not  to 
insist  upon  his  tarrying  long  among  them,  unless  they  design  to  put 
in  a  call  for  him ;  as  they  declare  this  to  be  their  design,  and  he  appears 
disposed  for  settlement." 

It  would  seem  from  this,  though  there  is  no  record  to 
the  effect,  that  the  Trenton  call  had  not  been  accepted. 
Neither  was  it  declined.     From  the  complexion  of  the  pro- 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  105 

ceedings  all  through  these  years,  and  fromi  the  subsequent 
transactions,  I  should  judge  that  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  preferred 
Trenton,  but  that  the  congregation  were  so  backward  on 
the  point  of  salary  or  other  arrangements,  that  he  held  the 
matter  in  suspense.  Perhaps  the  minute  last  copied  was 
ingeniously  worded  by  himself  so  as  to  suggest  motives  to 
the  people  of  Trenton  to  be  more  in  earnest,  if  they  wished 
their  call  to  be  preferred  above  the  others  that  were  coming 
in  at  every  Presbytery.  That  that  people  supposed  they  had 
a  special  claim  upon  him,  is  seen  in  the  tenor  of  the  pro- 
ceedings of  a  special  meeting  summoned  for  August  11, 
1 761,  at  Trenton,  to  dispose  of  a  fresh  invitation. 

"A  call  was  brought  in  by  Capt.  Samuel  Morris  and  Capt.  Wm. 
Craighead,  commissioners  from  the  congregation  of  Hanover,  in  Vir- 
ginia, soliciting  the  settlement  of  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  among  them  as  their 
minister,  which  was  objected  to  by  the  congregation  of  Trenton;  and 
the  Presbytery,  having  deliberately  heard  and  maturely  considered  the 
arguments  and  reasons  offered  by  both  parties,  and  having  likewise 
had  a  declaration  by  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  of  his  sentiments  and  inclina- 
tions relative  to  the  case,  came  to  the  following  conclusion,  namely, 
that,  although  they  would  gladly  concur  with  the  congregation  of  Han- 
over in  their  call,  yet  as  they  can  not  think  it  their  duty  to  appoint 
Mr.  Kirkpatrick  contrary  to  his  own  inclination  and  judgment  to  settle 
among  them,  they  judge  that  it  is  inexpedient  to  present  him  the  said 
call." 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  he  continued  tO'  serve  the 
Trenton  congregation  without  installment;  but  took  his 
share  with  the  other  members  of  the  Presbytery  and  Synod 
in  giving  an  occasional  Sabbath  to  the  numerous  vacancies 
in  their  extended  bounds.  Among  the  places  thus  visited 
by  him,  from  time  to  time  were  Mount  Holly,  Hardwick, 
Smithfield,  Springfield,  Blackriver,  Burlington,  Bristol,  Am- 
well,  Williamsburgh  (Virginia),  Second  Church,  Philadel- 
phia, Bound  Brook,  Tehicken.  At  one  time  (November  2, 
1763),  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  being  applied  to  by 
the  Rev.  Gilbert  Tennent  for  a  supply  for  his  pulpit  during 
a  winter,  on  account  of  his  ill  health,  the  Presbytery  advised 


io6  HISTORY   OF   THE 

the  congreg-ation  to  ask  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick 
to  allow  Messrs.  Kirkpatrick  and  Enoch  Green  to  supply 
them  as  much  as  they  can. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  year  (1761)  commissioners  from 
the  Trenton  congregation  appear  to  have  proposed  to  the 
Presbytery  some  advance  on  the  amount  of  salary  pre- 
viously offered  to  Mr.  Kirkpatrick.  The  Presbytery  ex- 
pressed their  gratification  at  the  exertion  made  to  this  end, 
but  pronounced  the  "medium  proposed"  to  be  insufficient. 
As  the  commissioners,  however,  had  given  their  reason  to 
hope  that  a  still  further  effort  would  be  made  for  "said 
medium's  being  increased,"  Presbytery  advised  Mr.  Kirk- 
patrick to  officiate  among  them  until  the  next  Spring  meet- 
ing. 

At'  this  meeting  (December  i,  1761)  President  Finley 
was  received  from  the  Presbytery  of  Newcastle,  and  he 
and  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  were  deputed  to  draw  up  and  present 
an  address  to<  Governor  Hardy,  on  his  accession  to  the 
administration  of  the  Province. 

In  the  spring  (April  20,  1762)  no  better  proposals  were 
received  from  Trenton.  The  Presbytery  confessed  great 
embarrassment  as  to  their  course,  but  finally  gave  their 
unanimous  advice  to  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  to  accept  the  call.  He 
complied  with  the  advice,  but  no  direction  was  given  for  in- 
stallment. 

An  important  measure,  however,  was  taken  by  the  congre- 
gation, immediately  after  this  meeting,  towards  encourag- 
ing the  permanent  settlement  of  their  minister.  This  was 
the  purchase  of  a  parsonage.  The  people  bought  a  lot  on 
the  north  side  of  Hanover  street,  which  runs  in  the  rear  of 
the  church,  sixty-five  feet  front,  and  about  one  hundred  and 
sixteen  feet  in  depth,  containing  twenty-eight  perches  of 
land,  on  which  was  a  dwelling  house.  This  property  was 
conveyed  to  the  trustees  by  deed  of  Stacy  Beaks,  and  his 
mother,  Mary  Beaks,  a  widow.  May  3,  1762,  for  the  con- 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  107 

sideration  of  two  hundred  and  seventy  pounds,  proclamation 
money,  "to  be  and  remain  for  a  parsonage  for  the  Presby- 
terian congregation  of  Trenton  forever,  and  the  use,  benefit 
and  profits  thereof,  to  be  held  and  enjoyed  by  the  Presby- 
terian minister  of  Trenton,  that  shall  be  regularly  called  by 
the  Presbyterian  congregation  of  Trenton,  and  approved 
by  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick." 

May,  1763,  brought  another  trial  of  the  strength  of  Kirk- 
patrick's  attachment  to  Trenton.  This  was  in  the  shape  of 
a  petition  from  the  congregation  of  Huntington,  Long 
Island,  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  settle  there  as  the  as- 
sistant or  colleague  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Prime,  who  was  disabled 
by  age  and  infirmities  for  the  pastoral  service.  The  decision 
of  this  application  was  deferred  till  June,  when  he  was  al- 
lowed to  relieve  Mr.  Prime  for  two  Sabbaths  in  July.  This 
was  followed  in  August  by  an  application  in  person  by  Dr. 
Zophar  Piatt,  on  behalf  of  the  Huntington  congregation. 
To  this  oral  call  the  Presbytery  objected  that  it  was  too  in- 
formal and  indefinite;  there  was  no  liberty  from  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Suffolk,  no  mention  of  the  capacity  in  which  Kirk- 
patrick  was  desired,  whether  as  stated  supply,  sole  pastor,  or 
colleague.  Moreover,  the  Trenton  difficulty  existed  here 
also;  "the  Presbytery  look  upon  the  proposed  medium  of 
support  to  be  insufficient,"  and,  therefore,  could  not  encour- 
age Mr.  Kirkpatrick  to  make  a  change.  Immediately  after- 
wards, however,  upon  a  petition  from  Loudon  county,  Vir- 
ginia, for  a  candidate  or  supply,  Kirkpatrick,  among  others, 
was  directed  to  "pay  a  visit  there  as  soon  as  possible,  and 
tarry  a  number  of  Sabbaths  at  discretion."  The  Rev. 
Messrs.  McKnight,  Hait,  Tennents,  Senior  and  Junior,  and 
Guild  were  appointed  to  supply  his  pulpit  five  Sabbaths. 

The  Synod  of  1763  brought  to  a  final  issue  a  series  of 
investigations  into  certain  erroneous  opinions  of  the  Rev. 
Samuel  Harker,  and  of  conferences  Avith  him,  which  had 
occupied  some  portion  of  their  attention  at  every  meeting 


io8  HISTORY   OF   THE 

since  that  of  1758,  when  the  case  was  first  brought  to  the 
Synod's  notice  by  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick,  of 
which  he  was  a  member.  Finding  him  the  more  mischievous 
and  oljstinate  for  their  forbearance,  the  Synod  pronounced 
him  disquaHfied  from  exercising  his  ministry.  This  de- 
cision coming  to  the  Presbytery,  they  directed  Mr.  Kirk- 
patrick  to  go-  as  soon  as  possible  to  Mr.  Harker's  congre- 
gation [Blackriver],  "warn  them  not  to  receive  his  doc- 
trines, or  receive  his  ministrations,  vindicate  the  conduct  of 
the  Synod,  signify  the  paternal  care  of  the  Presbytery  over 
them',  and  inquire  whether  they  are  resolved  to  abide  under 
our  care;  that  if  so,  we  may  order  them  supplies."  At  the 
next  meeting  Kirkpatrick  reported  that  he  had  fulfilled  his 
appointment,  and  that  the  congregation  were  in  such  a  con- 
fused and  divided  state  they  were  unable  to  form  a  deter- 
mination. 

At  the  October  meeting  of  1763  the  Trenton  congrega- 
tion is  again  before  Presbytery  with  an  application  for  the 
installment  of  their  favorite  minister,  now  in  the  fourth  year 
of  his  service  as  their  supply.  He  declined  to  accede  to  the 
proposition ;  but  no  clew  is  given  to  his  reasons  beyond  the 
statement  "that  he  could  not  in  the  present  situation  of 
affairs."  At  the  same  time  he  gave  no  intimation  of  with- 
drawing from  the  place,  or  of  a  willingness  to  yield  to  any 
of  the  numerous  invitations  that  had  come  to  him  from  other 
quarters.  The  Court  was  perplexed.  They  declared  they 
could  advise  neither  the  people  nor  their  called  minister  to 
proceed  any  further  towards  the  installation,  but  rather  in- 
clined to  the  opinion  that  by  mutual  consent  both  parties 
should  allow  "things  by  a  natural  and  easy  channel  to  return 
to  their  former  state  and  situation."  What  follows  in  the 
minute  does  not  help  to  throw  light  upon  the  difficulties  of 
the  case.  "If  this  advice  be  complied  with  by  the  said  par- 
ties, the  Presbytery  foresee  that  a  congregation  will  become  a 
vacancy  of  whom  they  had  entertained  hopes  that  they  might 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  109 

have  been  happily  and  permanently  settled,  which  is  to  them 
a  very  disagreeable  prospect.  But  if  this  should  finally  be 
the  event,  the  Presbytery  do  recommend  it  to  the  people 
to  pay  off  the  arrears  to  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  in  proportion  to 
what  they  have  hitherto  done;  and  in  the  present  exigence 
of  affairs  do  advise  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  to  supply  the  congrega- 
tion of  Trenton  at  discretion,  as  much  as  he  and  they  may 
agree  upon  till  our  next  Presbytery." 

The  charter  of  the  congregation,  as  we  have  before  seen, 
vested  in  the  minister,  elders  and  deacons  the  power  of 
electing  trustees.  As  long  as  Mr.  Cowell  lived  after  the 
charter  was  received,  he  was  one  of  the  trustees.  There 
was  nO'  election  in  1761.  In  1762-3  the  Trustees  were  all 
laymen.  But  in  1764  Mr.  Kirkpatricck  was  elected  Trustee 
and  Clerk  of  the  Board ;  an  evidence  that  his  relation  was 
not  considered  that  of  a  transient  supply.  In  those  times  a 
formal  installment  was  sometimes  dispensed  with  as  un- 
essential to  the  constitution  of  the  pastoral  connection.  In 
1736  the  Presbytery  ratified  a  decision  of  their  commission 
(for  Presbytery  as  well  as  Synod  sat  in  those  days  in  in- 
terims by  commission)  that  the  Rev.  William'  Tennent  was 
to  be  considered  "the  proper  Gospel  minister  and  pastor" 
of  the  congregation  of  Neshaminy,  though  he  had  never 
been  regularly  installed,  on  the  ground  that  he  had  accepted 
their  call;  that  in  the  preamble  of  their  subscription  for 
his  salary,  they  had  spoken  of  him  as  their  minister;  that 
the  body  of  them  once  owned  him  as  such  when  the  ques- 
tion was  openly  proposed  to  them;  in  the  church,  and  that 
he  had  for  ten  years  carried  on  all  parts  of  the  Gospel 
ministry  without  opposition.  An  appeal  from  this  de- 
cision was  carried  to  Synod  in  the  same  year,  but  the  Pres- 
bytery was  sustained ;  the  Synodal  decision  declaring  that, 
though  the  omission  of  a  formal  installment  was  not  to  be 
justified,  it  was  far  from  nullifying  the  pastoral  relation.* 

*  "Records,  "  p.  125. 


no  HISTORY   OF  THE 

The  people  of  Huntington,  not  discouraged  by  previous 
failures,  and  having  repaired  the  informalities  of  the  year 
before,  renewed  their  application  for  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  at 
the  October  session  of  1764.  At  this  time  his  position 
in  Trenton,  as  inferred  from  the  records,  takes  a  more 
definite  phase.  The  congregation  appeared  by  their  repre- 
sentatives, and  expressed  their  opinion  that  Mr.  Kirkpat- 
rick should  be  either  installed  or  dismissed ;  but  "earnestly 
desired  the  former."  On  the  other  hand,  a  paper  was  pre- 
sented with  the  signatures  of  fifteen  members  of  the  con- 
gregation, charging  their  minister  with  using  the  people 
ill,  especially  in  his  delays  about  a  permanent  settlement,  and 
concluding  with  a  disavowal  on  their  part  of  any  further 
oblijgations  to  him  as  their  pastor,  or  for  his  future  main- 
tenance. 

The  Presbytery  considered  these  allegations  and  pro- 
nounced them  groundless.  They  likewise  assured  the  mal- 
contents that  the  obligations  between  the  congregation  and 
Kirkpatrick  remained  in  force  "while  he  continues  their 
regular  minister  "  They  proceeded  to  say  that  in  the  pres- 
ent confusion  the  way  was  not  clear  for  the  installment 
and  deferred  final  action  ih  the  premises  till  their  next  meet- 
ing, which  was  to  be  held  in  a  few  weeks  in  Trenton.  Mean- 
while, Mr.  Kirkpatrick  was  at  liberty  to  spend  two  or  three 
Sabbaths  in  Huntington. 

Accordingly,  on  the  4th  December,  after  ordaining 
Mr.  James  Lyon  as  a  minister  to  Nova  Scotia,  it  was  de- 
termined, when  the  parties  had  been  fully  heard,  first,  that 
the  opposition  of  some  of  the  congregation  to^  the  settlement 
of  the  pastor  was  without  just  cause;  secondly,  that  there 
was  no  satisfactory  evidence  that  he  could  be  duly  sup- 
ported in  the  execution  of  his  office,  if  settled;  thirdly,  that 
the  way  is  not  clear  for  the  installment ;  fourthly,  that  Kirk- 
patrick was  under  no  obligation  to  settle  in  the  place ;  fifthly, 
that  as  the  body  of  the  congregation  were  in  his  favor,  he 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  in 

might  supply  them  for  the  present  season;  sixthly,  that 
he  should  be  paid  his  salary  and  arrears;  seventhly,  that 
he  should  have  liberty  to  preach  for  vacant  congregations; 
and,  eighthly,  if  he  should  wish  to  leave  the  bounds  of  the 
Presbytery,  Dr.  Finley  was  authorized  to  give  him  the  usual 
certificate.^ 

From  all  this,  it  appears  that  no  advance  or  change  in  the 
position  of  affairs  was  accomplished,  and  Mr.  Kirkpatrick 
retained  his  place. 

In  the  Synod,  as  well  as  in  the  Presbytery,  the  minister  of 
Trenton  was  a  punctual  and  active  member.  He  was  often 
clerk,  and  his  name  is  found  in  connection  with  much  of 
the  prominent  business.  In  the  Synod  of  1763,  he  was  on 
the  committees  for  the  education  of  pious  students  at 
Princeton,  and  for  the  direction  and  support  of  mission- 
aries on  the  frontiers,  and  seems  to  have  been  generally  in 
request  as  a  practical  worker  in  the  financial  and  judicial 
transactions  of  Church  courts.  On  one  occasion  he  is  re- 
corded as  having  left  town  without  leave;  but  it  was  for 
the  two  tedious  days,  in  which  the  roll  of  Synod  was  called, 
that  each  member  might  express  his  opinion  on  the  question, 
whether  a  candidate  should  be  required  to  narrate  his  re- 
ligious experience  before  a  judicature,  as  a  ground  of  de- 
ciding upon  his  reception.* 

New  Brunswick  and  Metuchin,  White  Clay  Creek  and 
Christiana  Creek  and  Walkill,  applied  to  Presbytery  in 
1765  for  the  services  of  Kirkpatrick,  with  a  view  to  settle- 
ment, or  as  a  supply;  but  without  resulting  in  any  change. 

In  April,  1766,  there  came  once  more  a  formal  call  from 
Trenton,  and  at  the  same  time  one  from  Amwell.  The 
former  of  these  is  spoken  of  in  the  course  of  the  proceed- 
ings as  his  "re-settlement,"  probably  meaning  a  renewed 
effort  for  his  settlement,  as  his  work  as  pastor,  in  every 
thing  but  the  name,  had  been  continued  without  suspension. 


"Records,"   p.   317-8. 


112  HISTORY   OP  THE 

Both  congregations  made  their  pleas  before  the  Presbytery. 
It  would  seem  from  the  Minutes,  that,  after  both  the  min- 
ister and  people  of  Trenton  had  signified  their  assent  that 
the  Amwell  call  should  be  prosecuted,  both  were  disposed 
to  retract,  when  the  time  of  separation  approached;  for  this 
is  the  deliverance : 

"That  there  was  some  degree  of  imprudence  on  the  part  of  Mr. 
Kirkpatrick,  or  the  people  of  Trenton,  or  both,  in  proceeding  so  far 
in  their  call,  without  the  advice  of  Presbytery,  and  that,  after  they 
had  jointly  and  severally  given  encouragement  to  the  people  of  Amwell 
to  invite  him  among  them. 

"As  the  above  congregations  are  places  of  importance,  and  equally 
dear  to  the  Presbytery,  and  said  congregations,  together  with  Mr. 
Kirkpatrick,  have  submitted  the  final  determination  of  the  affair  to 
the  Presbytery,  they  do  therefore  judge,  upon  the  whole,  that  it  is 
most  expedient  for  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  to  accept  the  call  from  Amwell." 

But  neither  was  this  the  close  of  this  protracted  business. 
Mr.  Kirkpatrick's  dilemma  was  not  relieved  by  the  decision 
he  had  invoked.  The  matter  went  on  undecided  for  another 
mionth,  when  a  new  influence  interposed.  The  Synod  met 
in  May,  in  New  York.  In  the  course  of  their  meetings,  the 
Presbytery  held  a  session.  At  this,  two  members  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Philadelphia — the  Rev.  Andrew  Hunter,  and 
Williami  Ramsey — were  present,  and  in  their  capacity  as 
correspondents,  urged  the  reconsideration  of  the  vote  in 
April.  They  apprehended  the  most  serious  consequences 
to  the  interests  of  religion  in  Trenton,  if  Kirkpatrick  should 
be  removed.  They  pleaded,  that  from  the  happy  union 
of  "all  societies"  in  the  last  call,  and  the  extraordinary  ex- 
ertions that  had  been  made  in  view  of  its  acceptance,  a 
happy  prospect  opened  of  "an  important  congregation  being 
gathered  there,"  if  he  was  settled  among  them.  "But  if 
not,  that  the  hearts  O'f  the  people  would  be  so  sunk  and 
discouraged,  that  they  would  be  effectually  prevented  from 
future  applications,  especially  considering  the  unhappy 
prejudices   they   have   contracted    against   the    Presbytery, 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  113 

for  the  aforesaid  judgment."  "It  was  therefore  earnestly 
overtured  by  these  brethren"  (and  Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  if  not 
the  reporter,  was  the  recorder  of  their  language) ,  "that  the 
matter  should  be  reviewed,  in  order  to  prevent  the  ruin  of 
that  growing  society,  which,  on  account  of  its  situation, 
etc.,  is  really  important;  and  the  rather,  as  the  number  of 
ministers  present  at  said  determination,  was  but  small." 

The  subject  being  thus  opened  afresh,  the  Presbytery, 
at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  following  day,  resumed 
the  discussion,  and  consented  to  adjourn  to  the  next  month 
at  Trenton,  and  there  reconsider  their  decision.  The  con- 
gregations of  Amwell  and  Trenton  were  to  be  notified  of 
the  opportunity  of  being  heard. 

On  the  24th  June,  the  parties  were  again  present;  and 
the  judicatory,  perhaps  tired  of  the  subject,  turned  the 
whole  responsibility  upon  the  candidate,  by  putting  both 
calls  into-  his  hands,  and  requiring  him  to  make  his  own 
choice.  Thus  constrained,  Kirkpatrick  decided  for  Am- 
well, and  the  Presbytery  immediately  appointed  the  second 
Wednesday  of  the  following  August  for  his  installment 
there,  which  was  accomplished.^ 

Kirkpatrick  had  but  a  short  career  left.  In  1767  he  was 
elected  a  Trustee  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey.  He  was 
among  the  supplies  for  Trenton  for  that  year.  He  was 
Stated  Clerk  of  Presbytery,  and  Clerk  of  Synod,  a  member 
of  the  Commission  of  Synod,  one  of  the  Synod's  deputation 
to  meet  the  Consociated  Churches  of  Connecticut  at  New 
Haven  in  September,  for  a  plan  of  union,  in  view  of  the 
prospect  of  the  establishment  of  Diocesan  Episcopacy  in 
America  by  the  Church  of  England.^ °  In  1768  he  supplied 
five  Sabbaths  in  Trenton ;  is  again  on  the  Synod's  Com- 
mission; a  delegate  to  the  General  Convention  or  Union 
meeting  with  the  Connecticut  Consociation  at  Elizabeth- 
town  ;  in  May  a  correspondent  for  the  Presbytery  with  the 
Rev.  Job  Prudden  in  Connecticut,  and  in  October  for  the 

8    PRES 


114  HISTORY   OF  THE 

Synod  with  ministers  of  Dublin,  according  to  a  system  of 
intercourse  with  foreign  churches.  In  1769  he  was  Mod- 
erator of  the  Synod  in  Philadelphia,  and  a  member  of  the 
Presbytery's  committee  to  draft  a  memorial  to  obtain  funds 
for  the  College  at  Princeton.  This  memorial  is  recorded  on 
the  minutes.  Among  its  statements  is  this :  "It  is  with 
pleasure  they  observe  some  very  eminent  departments  of  a 
civil  nature  already  filled  with  the  sons  of  this  College,  and 
that  in  the  year  1767  not  fewer  than  eighty  of  them  were 
ministers  dispersed  through  the  several  colonies ;  since  which 
time  there  has  been  a  considerable  addition."  In  the 
archives  of  the  Assembly  is  a  copy  of  this  memorial  in  a 
printed  folio-sheet,  signed  by  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  as  Moderator. 
There  is  also  preserved  in  the  same  collection,  and  in  the 
same  form,  with  his  signature  as  clerk,  the  Synod's  circular 
of  1767,  recommending  congregations  to  provide  glebes  for 
their  pastors — a  greater  care  for  widows,  orphans  and  the 
poor,  the  avoidance  of  law-suits,  the  appointment  of  masters 
to  teach  the  catechism  and  psalmody,  the  disuse  of  spirituous 
liquors  at  funerals  and  the  establishment  in  each  congrega- 
tion of  a  society  for  the  reformation  of  morals. 

In  1769  Kirkpatrick  was  both  Treasurer  and  Clerk  of 
Presbytery.  On  the  15th  of  June  of  that  year  his  familiar 
name  appears  for  the  last  time  among  its  living  members. 
He  died  in  Amwell  on  the  eighth  of  September,  not  yet 
forty-three  years  of  age.  His  body  was  buried  in  front  of 
the  pulpit  of  the  First  Church  of  Amwell,  or  "Old  House," 
between  the  villages  of  Ringoes  and  Reaville.  The  church 
has  been  since  taken  down  and  a  new  one  built  at  Reaville, 
but  the  tomb  remains  in  its  first  position,  and  is  thus  in- 
scribed : 

"Here  lieth  the  body  of  the 
Rev.   WILLIAM   KIRKPATRICK, 

Late  Pastor  of  this  church. 
Who  died  in  the  43d  year  of  his  age. 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  115 

Reader,  wouldst  thou  know  his  character  for  thy  good? 
Think  what  a  Man,  a  Christian,  a  Minister  of  the  Gospel, 

A  Friend,  a  Husband,  a  Father,  a  Master  should  be ; 
For  in  imitating  this  pattern  (if  justly  drawn)  thou  shalt 

imitate   him,    and    with   him   shalt   with   distinguished 
honor   attain  to   the   resurrection   of   the   just." 

"Near  him"  (says  a  correspondent  of  The  Presbyterian) ,  "lie  the 
remains  of  a  daughter  who  survived  him,  and  whose  name  is  found 
on  the  records  of  Amwell  First  Church  as  a  member  in  full  com- 
munion.    We  give  the  inscription  on  her  tombstone : 

"In  memory  of 

Hannah,  daughter  of  the  late  Rev.  William  Kirkpatrick. 

Pastor    of   this    church. 

Who    died    August    7th,    1786,    in    the    nineteenth 

year  of  her  age. 

The  dust  beneath 

Proclaims  this  solemn  truth : 
The  young  are  fading, 

Frail's   the  bloom   of   youth ; 
Life's  a   short  dream, 

A  false  and  empty  show, 
And   all   is 

Fleeting  vanity  below. 
O  reader !  speak. 

Can  you  believe  too  soon, 
The   fairest  morn  of  life 

Will  not  insure  the  noon." 

"Mrs.  Margaret  Kirkpatrick,  his  widow,  was  afterwards  married 
to  the  Rev.  John  Warford,  who  having  been  called  by  the  Amwell 
people  April  3,  1776,  was  ordained  and  installed  their  pastor.  The 
man  of  God,  who  is  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  fulfilled  his  course  in 
about  eleven  years ;  but  short  as  that  course  was,  it  left  an  abiding 
impression  in  the  region  where  he  closed  his  labors.  Testimony  to 
this  effect  has  been  frequently  given  to  the  writer  by  a  highly  inteUi- 
gent  parishioner,  who  was  born  in  1760,  and  lived  to  enter  his  ninety- 
first  year.  There  is  now  living  [1857]  a  venerable  mother  in  Israel, 
aged  ninety-seven,  who,  though  only  eight  or  nine  years  old  at  the 
time,  has  a  distinct  recollection  of  Mr.  Kirkpatrick's  personal  appear- 
ance. She  describes  him  as  being  above  the  ordinary  size,  but  not 
corpulent ;  grave,  dignified,  and  commanding  in  his  aspect,  and  of  most 
engaging  address.  But  by  no  survivor  was  he  more  loved  and  revered 
than  by  a  slave,  whom  he  owned  to  the  time  of  his  death.  New  Jersey 


ii6      HISTORY   OF   FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH. 

being  then  a  slave-holding  State.  This  slave  lived  to  be  about  one 
hundred  years  of  age.  To  old  Cato  his  master  -was  the  model  of  a 
man  and  a  Christian  minister,  and  but  for  his  greater  love  to  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  his  profound  veneration  and  deep-rooted  affection  might 
have  been  looked  upon  as  idolatry."" 

I  am  sorry  to  find,  not  only  in  the  Records  of  our  Trus- 
tees, but  of  the  Presbytery,  that  there  was,  both  before  and 
after  Mr.  Kirkpatrick's  death,  some  irregularity  and  delay 
in  the  discharge  of  his  salary.^ ^  Insufficiency  of  stipend 
and  unpunctuality  in  receiving  it  have  long  been  among  the 
trials  of  pastors,  especially  of  those  settled  in  rural  districts, 
where  the  people,  accustomed  to  maintain  their  own  families 
from  their  farms,  or  by  barter,  have  an  inadequate  idea  of 
the  necessity  of  money  to  those  who  have  nothing  else  to 
live  upon.  In  the  times  of  which  I  am  writing,  these  evils 
frequently  engaged  the  attention  of  the  Presbytery,  and  for 
awhile  reports  of  such  delinquencies  were  statedly  called 
for  and  acted  upon.  In  regard  to  Mr.  Kirkpatrick's  case, 
inasmuch  as  the  subject  stands  upon  the  Records,  it  ought 
to  be  said  that,  according  to  the  church  books,  it  appears  that 
there  was  a  difficulty  in  determining  the  claims  for  arrears 
due  on  the  last  six  months'  salary,  and  that  the  committee 
of  the  Trustees,  appointed  for  the  purpose,  could  not  get 
access  to  the  accounts  of  Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  so  as  to  ascer- 
tain what  amount,  or  whether,  in  fact,  any  remained  unpaid. 
The  subject  was  dismissed  from  Presbytery  with  the  conclu- 
sion, "that  all  has  been  done  that  can  conveniently  be  done 
relating  to  the  Trenton  arrears."  One  source  of  the  diffi- 
culty probably  was  that  the  salary  was  collected  by  a  com- 
mittee in  each  church,  who  may  have  handed  their  collec- 
tions to  the  minister  without  the  agency  of  the  treasurer. 
Thus  in  March,  1765,  is  a  minute  in  the  Trustees'  book: 

"Appointed  to  collect  the  six  months'  salary  for  Mr.  Kirkpatrick: 
"In  town :    John  Ely,  Hezekiah  Howell. 
"In  the  country :    Isaac  Green,  Richard  Palmer." 


CHAPTER    X. 

Trustees — Trenton  and  Maidenhi^ad. 
1764 — 1769. 

From  Mr.  Co  well's  death,  until  Mr.  Kirkpatrick's  re- 
moval, the  Trenton  Board  of  Trustees  remained  unchanged, 
at  the  annual  elections,  except  that  in  1762  the  name  of 
Obadiah  Howell  appears  in  the  place  of  Mr.  Cowell's;  in 
1764,  the  names  of  Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  James  Cumines,  and 
Abraham  Hunt,  come  in  the  places  of  Arthur  Howell, 
Joseph  Yard,  and  Moore  Furman;  in  1766,  the  names  of 
Joseph  Reed,  Jr.,  Samuel  Tucker,  and  Daniel  Clark,  suc- 
ceed those  of  Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  William  Green,  and  James 
Cumines.  In  1764,  John  Chambers,  John  Hendrickson,  and 
Joseph  Green,  were  elected  Elders;  in  1765,  Benjamin 
Yard,  Hezekiah  Howell,  and  William'  Tucker  were  elected, 
apparently  to  succeed  them. 

James  Cumines,  or  Cumine,  or  Cumins,  died  February 
21,  1770,  aged  sixty-six.  He  bequeathed  ten  pounds  to 
■  the  Trustees,  to  be  invested  for  the  support  of  the  pastor. 
This  was  not  payable  until  the  death  of  his  wife,  at  which 
time  the  rest  of  his  property  was  to  be  divided  among 
James,  Williami,  Samuel,  and  Joseph,  sons  of  William 
Cumines,  o^f  Nottingham,  Chester  county,  Pennsylvania. 
A  Mrs.  Jean  Cumins  signed  the  call  O'f  Mr,  Spencer,  in 
1769. 

Abraham  Hunt  was,  for  many  years,  the  most  promi- 
nent and  opulent  merchant  of  the  town.  He  was  in  the 
Board  from  1764  till  his  death,  at  the  age  of  eighty-one, 
October  27th,  1821,  a  space  of  fifty-seven  years.     He  was 

(117) 


ii8  HISTORY   OF  THE 

regfular  in  his  attendance  at  the  meetings,  down  tO'  1818. 
In  that  year  he  made  his  will,  bequeathing  one  hundred 
dollars  to  this  church,  and  the  same  amount  to  the  Epis- 
copal. Mr.  Hunt  was  Pbstmaster  of  Trenton,  both  before 
and  after  the  Revolution.  His  grandson,  Mr.  Wesley  P. 
Hunt,  has  in  his  possession  one  of  his  commissions,  dated 
January  10,  1764,  by  which  "Benjamin  Franklin  and 
John  Fo'xcroft,  Postmasters-General  of  all  his  Majesty's 
Provinces  and  Dominions  in  the  continent  of  North 
America,"  appoint  Abraham  Hunt,  Deputy  Postmaster  in 
Trenton,  for  three  years;  and  another,  dated  October  13th, 
1775,  also  for  three  years,  from  "Benjamin  Franklin,  Po'St- 
master-General  of  all  the  United  Colonies  on  the  continent 
of  North  America." 

The  tradition  is  now  on  record,  that  Colonel  Rahl  was 
spending  a  late  evening  at  Mr.  Hunt's  house,  in  Christmas 
festivities,  the  day  before  the  battle  of  Trenton,  in  which  he 
fell,  and  that  his  hilarity  caused  him  to  leave  unopened  a 
note  that  warned  him  of  the  approach  of  Washington's 
army.*  Mr.  Hunt  was  the  father  of  Pearson,  Wilson,  John 
W.,  and  Theodore  Hunt.  Of  his  first  wife,  Theodosia,  who 
died  March  4,  1784,  at  the  age  of  thirty-nine,  her  tomb- 
stone declares:  "Such  was  the  cheerful,  uninterrupted 
benevolence  of  her  heart,  such  was  the  gentleness  and 
purity  of  her  manners,  that  she  never  made  am  enemy,  nor 
ever  lost  a  friend.  To  know  her  once,  was  to  love  her 
forever."  His  second  wife  was  Mary  Dagworthy,  who 
died  April  4,  18 14,  in  her  sixty-sixth  year. 

JoaePH  Reed,  Jr.,  is  well  known  in  American  history,  in 
connection  with  the  public  positions  enumerated  in  the  title 
oif  the  two  volumes  of  his  "Life  and  Correspondence,"  as 
"Military  Secretary  of  Washington  at  Cambridge,  Adju- 
tant-General of  the  Continental  Army,  Member  of  the  Con- 
gress of  the  Uinited  States,  and  President  of  the  Executive 


Ivossing's  Field-Book  of  the  Revolution. 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  119 

Council  of  Pennsylvania."  In  1767  he  was  Deputy  Secre- 
tary of  the  Colony  of  New  Jersey.*  He  was  also  (1777) 
elected  Chief  Justice  of  Pennsylvania,  but  declined  the 
office.  Mr.  Reed  was  born  at  Trenton,  August  27,  1741. 
Of  his  father,  Andrew  Reed,  whoi  was  one  of  the  original 
Corporators  and  Trustees,  I  have  already  made  mention. 
Joseph  Reed  graduated  at  Princeton,  in  1757;  studied  law 
with  Richard  Stockton,  and  was  admitted  tO'  the  bar  in 
1763.  He  then  went  to  London,  and  prosecuted  his  pro- 
fessional studies  in  the  Middle  Temple,  until  1765,  when 
he  returned  and  comimenced  practice  in  Trenton.  Accord- 
ing to  a  letter  of  1766,  his  family  in  Trenton,  at  that  time, 
consisted  of  himself,  his  father,  sister,  two  brothers,  his 
half-sister  (Mrs.  Charles  Pettit),  and  her  three  children. 
In  the  same  year  he  writes:  "There  are  sixteen  courts 
which  I  am  obliged  to  attend  from  home,  oftentimes  near 
a  whole  week  at  each,  besides  attending  the  assizes  once  a 
year  through  the  whole  province,  which  contains  thirteen 
counties."  His  dwelling,  according  toi  an  advertisement 
of  the  property,  in  1779,  was  near  the  market-house,  hav- 
ing nearly  two  acres  of  ground  attached  to  it,  extending 
two  hundred  feet  on  Market  street,  and  commanding  a 
beautiful  view  of  the  Delaware,  including  the  Falls. 

In  1770,  Mr.  Reed  re-visited  London,  and  was  married  to 
a  daughter  of  Denys  de  Berdt,  after  which  he  took  up 
his  residence  in  Philadelphia,  and  his  public  life  thence- 
foirward  was  identified  with  his  adopted  State.  ^ 

Mr.  Reed  was  a  Trustee  of  the  congregation  from  1766 
to  1769c  On  his  removal  to  Philadelphia,  he  attended  the 
Pine  Street  (third  Pi'esbyteriajn)  Church.  His  biographer 
says :   He  "was  firmly  attached  to  the  Presbyterian  Church, 


*  Ivife  and  Correspondence  of  Joseph'  Reed,  by  his  grandson  William  B.  Reed, 
2  vols.,  1847.  Memoir  of  the  same,  by  Professor  Henry  Reed,  in  Sparks'  Ameri- 
can Biography,  vol.  viii.  The  I<ife  of  Esther  de  Berdt  [Mrs.  Joseph  Reed],  by 
W.  B.  Reed;  privately  printed.  Colonel  Reed's  commission  is  in  "Documents, 
Colonial  History  of  New  Jersey,"    1886,  vol.  x.,  pp.    s,   6. 


120  HISTORY   OF  THE 

in  which  he  had  been  educated."  In  one  of  his  publications, 
he  said  of  it:  "When  I  am  convinced  of  its  errors,  or 
ashamed  of  its  character,  I  may  perhaps  change  it;  till 
then  I  shall  not  blush  at  a  connection  with  a  people,  who, 
in  this  great  controversy,  are  not  second  to  any  in  vigorous 
exertions  and  general  contributions,  and  to  whom  we  are  so 
eminently  indebted  for  our  deliverance  from  the  thraldom 
of  Great  Britain." 

In  the  Pennsylvania  Packet  of  April  22,  1779,  is  an 
address,  presented  to  President  Reed,  from  the  officers  of 
the  Scots'  Presbyterian  Church  of  Philadelphia,  applauding 
his  administration.  The  Pine  Street  congregation,  for 
whom  Mr.  Reed  had  acted  as  counsel,  in  settling  a  differ- 
ence about  property  with  the  Market  Street,  or  First 
Church,  presented  him.  with  a  pew.  It  was  to  the  pastor 
of  Pine  Street,  that  the  direction  o^f  Mr.  Reed's  will  re- 
ferred in  saying:  "If  I  am  of  consequence  enough  for  a 
funeral  sermon,  I  desire  it  may  be  preached  by  my  old 
friend  and  instructor,  Mr.  Duffield,  in  Arch  street,  the  next 
Sunday  after  my  funeral." 

When  John  Adams  was  attending  Congress  in  Philadel- 
phia, he  often  attended  the  Arch  and  Pine  Street  churches 
with  Mr.  Reed.  Thus  in  his  diary  of  1774:  "September 
10  [which  was  Saturday,  and  preparatory  to  the  com- 
munion], rambled  in  the  evening  with  Jo.  Reed,  and  fell 
into  Mr.  Sproat's  meeting  [Arch  street],  where  we  heard 
Mr.  Spence  preach.  September  11.  Mr.  Reed  was  so  kind 
as  to  wait  on  us  to  Mr.  Sproat's  meeting."  "October  24, 
1775.  Heard  Mr.  Smith,  of  Pequea.  This  was  at  Duffield's 
meeting."  Mr.  Adams  pronounced  Sproat  to  be  "totally 
destitute  of  the  genius  and  eloquence  of  Duffield."* 

Colonel  Reed  was  with  General  Cadwalader's  division 
when  Washington  crossed  the  Delaware,  in  1777.    In  1782 


*  L,ife  and  Works  of  John  Adams,  vol.   ii.     In   1777,  Mr.  Adams  boarded  with 
the  family  of  Mr.  Sproat. 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  121 

he  was  one  of  the  professional  representatives  of  Pennsyl- 
vania, before  the  Commissioners  of  Congress,  who  met  at 
Trenton  to  decide  the  dispute  between  that  State  and  Con- 
necticut, in  regard  to  the  Wyoming  lands. ^  In  one  of  his 
letters  he  writes  of  having  received  a  letter  "under  cover 
of  Mr.  Spencer,"  then  the  pastor  at  Trenton.  He  was  a 
Trustee  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey  from  1781  until  his 
death.  In  1783,  visiting  England  for  his  health,  he  was 
associated  with  Dr.  Witherspoon,  who  went  out  in  the  same 
vessel,  on  a  mission  to  obtain  subscriptions  for  the  College 
abroad.     He  died  in  Philadelphia,  March  5,  1785.^ 

SamuEIv  Tucker  served  in  the  Trusteeship  from  1766 
to  1788,  and  for  most  of  the  time  was  Clerk  of  the  Board. 
He  held  many  public  stations.  He  had  been  Sheriff  of 
Hunterdon,  and  when  as  a  member  of  the  Provincial  As- 
sembly of  1769  he  took  an  active  part  in  the  investigation 
of  alleged  professional  abuses  of  lawyers,  there  was  a  re- 
crimination in  regard  to  his  own  fee  bills  as  Sheriff.*  He 
was  President  of  the  Provincial  Congress  of  New  Jersey, 
which  sat  in  Trenton  from  October  4  to  28,  1775,  and 
officially  signed  the  Constitution  which  it  framed,  July  2, 
1776.  On  the  4th  September  of  that  great  year,  he  was 
appointed  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court.  He  was  also 
for  a  time  Treasurer  of  the  new  State,  and  in  that  relation 
there  will  be  occasion  to  introduce  his  name  hereafter.  In 
1776  he  was  Chairman  of  the  Provincial  Committee  of 
Safety,*  but  in  the  subsequent  panic  he  took  advantage  of 
the  offer  of  British  protection.!  Perhaps  some  of  this 
weakness  was  attributable  to  the  family  connection  of  Mr. 
Tucker — his  wife  being  an  English  lady.  It  is  said  that 
Mr.  Tucker  and  John  Hart  (afterwards  a  signer  of  the 
Declaration)  were  competitors  for  the  Assembly,  in  1768; 
Tucker  was  supported  by  the  Episcopalians,  Methodists  and 

*  Field's  Provincial  Courts  of  New  Jersey,  p.   169. 

t  Journal  of  Assembly  of  New  Jersey,  Dec.   17,   1777.     Sedgwick's  I<ife  of  Gov- 
ernor Livingston,  p.   194. 


122  HISTORY   OF  THE 

Baptists ;  Hart  by  the  Presbyterians.  "During  the  first  and 
second  days  of  election,  Hart  was  ahead,  but  on  the  third, 
one  Judge  Brae,  coming  up  with  a  strong  reserve  of  Church 
of  England  men,  secured  Tucker's  return."* 

Mr.  Tucker  died  in  1789.  By  his  will  he  left  fifty  pounds 
to  "the  Trustees  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Trenton  and 
Lamberton,"  as  it  is  named  in  the  will,  to  distinguish  the 
town  from  the  country  church;  the  interest  was  to  be  paid 
annually  "toi  the  minister,  to  attend  divine  service  in  the 
Presbyterian  Church  in  Trenton,  towards  his  support."  He 
left  thirty  pounds  to  the  Episcopal  Church.  His  will  made 
judicious  provision  for  the  emancipation  of  his  slaves,  either 
immediate  or  at  a  conditional  time;  as,  upon  learning  a 
trade,  adding  a  legacy  of  money  to  that  of  liberty. 

Mrs.  Tucker's  maiden  name  was  Gould.^  In  1766  she 
inherited  from  Elizabeth  Gould,  of  Exeter,  Devonshire, 
some  property,  which,  by  her  own  will,  in  1787,  she  be- 
queathed to  her  nieces.  White  and  Murgatroyd. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Tucker  were  buried  in  the  old  grave-yard 
described  already  as  lying  inclosed  but  desolate,  in  the  midst 
of  cultivated  fields.  The  two  large  stones  that  cover  their 
graves  are  the  only  ones  in  the  little  inclosure  that  remain 
unmutilated.     The  inscriptions  are  as  follows: 

1.  "Underneath  this  stone  lie  the  remains  of  Samuel  Tucker,  Esq.,. 
who  departed  this  life,  the  14th  day  of  January,  1789,  aged  67  years, 
3  months,  and  19  days. 

"Though  in  the  dust  I  lay  my  head, 
Yet,  gracious  God,  thou  wilt  not  leave 
My  soul  forever  with  the  dead, 

Nor  lose  thy  children  in  the  grave." 

2.  "In  memory  of  Elizabeth  Tucker,  the  wife  of  Samuel  Tucker,, 
Esq.,  of  Trenton,  and  daughter  of  James  and  Ann  Gould,  who  departed 
this  life  on  Sunday,  the  13th  day  of  May,  1787,  aged  57  years,  8  months^ 
and  14  days. 


Sedgwick's  I^ivingstone,  p.  143. 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  123 

"This  life's  a  dream,  an  empty  show, 
But  the  bright  world  to  which  I  go 
Hath  joys  substantial  and  sincere; 
When  shall  I  wake  and  find  me  there? 
Then  burst  the  chains  with  sweet  surprise. 
And  in  my  Saviour's  image  rise." 

At  the  meeting  of  Presbytery,  in  the  fall  of  the  year  in 
which  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  left  Trenton,  the  congregation  ap- 
plied for  supplies,  ''and  in  particular  for  the  Rev.  Mr,  Mc- 
Knight,  in  case  of  his  dismission  from  his  present  charge 
which,  they  inform  us,  they  have  heard  is  probable."  This 
was  the  Rev.  Charles  McKnight,  who  was  the  pastor  of 
Allentown,  but  who  at  the  same  meeting  was,  at  his  request, 
dismissed  from  that  charge.  At  that  time,  also,  a  call  for 
him  was  presented  from  Shrewsbury,  Shark  River  and 
Middletown  Point,  which  he  subsequently  accepted. 

The  people  next  turned  their  attention  to  Mr.  Jonathan 
Edwards,  son  of  the  eminent  President  of  Princeton  Col- 
lege, and  himself  afterwards  distinguished  as  President  of 
Union  College,  at  Schenectady.  Mr.  Edwards  graduated 
at  Princeton  after  his  father's  death,  and  in  1767  was  em- 
ployed there  as  tutor.  He  had  been  licensed  by  the  Litch- 
field Congregational  Association  in  1766,  but  in  April,  1767, 
he  applied  to  be  taken  under  the  care  of  the  Presbytery  of 
New  Brunswick,  which  was  done,  and  among  the  vacancies 
assigned  to  him  was  Trenton,  which  he  was  directed  to 
supply  for  three  Sabbaths.  On  the  20th  October,  1767,  a 
call  was  brought  for  him  from  the  congregation.  As  Mr. 
Edwards  was  not  present,  the  matter  was  deferred,  but  "in 
the  meantime  the  Presbytery  cannot  help  expressing  their 
pleasure  to  see  such  a  harmony  among  said  people  in  the 
call  aforesaid,  and  that  they  have  exerted  themselves  so  far 
for  the  support  of  the  Gospel ;  and  we  assure  said  people  we 
will  concur  with  them  in  their  prosecution  of  said  call ;  and 
we  appoint  Mr.  Edwards,  to  supply  at  Trenton  as  much  as 
he  can  do,  till  our  spring  Presbytery." 


124      HISTORY   OF   FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH. 

The  exertion,  for  which  the  people  are  commended,  refers 
to  a  subscription  for  the  support  of  the  pastor-elect,  which 
accompanied  the  call,  and  the  lack  of  which — added,  per- 
haps, to  the  want  of  the  same  unanimity  in  the  people — had 
been  the  main  cause  of  preventing  the  installment  of  their 
late  minister.  The  application,  however,  was  ineffectual, 
and  on  the  19th  A^ril,  1768,  the  entry  is : 

"Mr.  Edwards,  having  been  chosen  a  Professor  of  Languages,  etc., 
in  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  and  being  now  employed  as  a  tutor 
there,  could  not  see  it  to  be  his  duty  to  break  his  connections  with  the 
college  aforesaid;  and  therefore,  as  he  would  not  accept  the  call  from 
Trenton,  it  was  returned.'" 

The  College  was  often  looked  to  for  ministers.  Just 
before  calling  Mr.  Edwards,  Trenton  was  one  of  three 
vacant  congregations  that  applied  for  Mr.  James  Thomp- 
son, a  recent  licentiate,  to  supply  them  statedly,  "but  Mr. 
Thompson's  connections  with  the  College  of  New  Jersey  as 
a  tutor  so  embarrass  him  that  it  appears  inexpedient  to  the 
Presbytery  to  lay  him  under  any  positive  appointment,  but 
only  recommend  it  to  him  to  supply  as  much  as  he  can  at 
these  places,  at  discretion."     (Minute  of  June  23,  1767.) 

In  the  year  1769  the  two  congregations  of  Trenton  united 
with  the  Maidenhead  congregation  in  an  arrangement  by 
which  one  pastor  could  serve  the  three  societies.  There 
must  have  been  some  strong  necessity,  financial  or  other- 
wise, for  a  measure  that  would  reduce  the  share  of  each 
congregation  from  one-half  of  a  minister's  care  to  one- 
third.  The  first  evidence  of  the  union  is  in  a  minuite  of 
October  18: 

"A  petition  was  brought  into  the  Presbytery,  from  the  congrega- 
tions of  Trenton  and  Maidenhead,  signed  by  the  respective  elders, 
requesting  them  to  invite  the  Reverend  Mr.  Spencer,  a  member  of  the 
Presbytery  of  Newcastle,  to  settle  among  them;  which  the  Presbytery 
unanimously  complied  with." 


CHAPTER  XL 

The  Reverend   Eeihu   Spencer,   D.D. — His   Previous 

History. 

1721 — 1769. 

Eeihu  Spencer,  thus  introduced  into  our  history,  was  a 
son  of  Isaac  and  Mary  (Selden)  Spencer,  and  was  born  in 
East  Haddam,  Connecticut,  February  12,  1721.  He  entered 
Yale  College  in  1742,  and  commenced  Bachelor  of  Arts  in 
1746,  in  the  class  with  President  Stiles  and  John  Brainerd. 
The  families  of  Spencer  and  Brainerd  were  doubly  con- 
nected, for  Hannah  Spencer,  a  sister  of  Dr.  Spencer's  grand- 
father, was  the  grandmother  of  David  and  John  Brainerd; 
and  their  sister,  Martha  Brainerd,  was  the  wife  of  General 
Joseph  Spencer,  brother  of  Elihu.  In  the  Life  of  David 
Brainerd,  President  Edwards  relates  that  when  David  was 
on  his  deathbed,  his  youngest  brother,  Israel,  came  to  see 
him;  "but  this  meeting,"  he  says,  "was  attended  with  sor- 
row, as  his  brother  brought  him  the  sorrowful  tidings  of 
his  sister  Spencer's  death  at  Haddam.^  A  peculiarly  tender 
affection  and  much  religious  intimacy  had  long  subsisted 
between  Mr.  Brainerd  and  his  sister,  and  he  used  to  make 
her  house  his  home  whenever  he  went  to  Haddam,  his 
native  place." 

Mr.  Spencer  had  entered  college  with  the  design  of 
preparation  for  the  ministry,  and  soon  after  his  licensure 
he  was  chosen  by  the  American  Correspondents,  or  Com- 
missioners, of  the  Scottish  Society  for  propagating  the 
Gospel  in  New  England  and  parts  adjacent,  as  a  suitable 
missionary  to  the  Indian  tribes.     At  this  time  David  Brain- 

(125) 


126  HISTORY   OP  THE 

erd  was  the  most  prominent  evangelist  among  the  Indians, 
and  it  was  partly  owing  to  his  favorable  opinion  that  young 
Spencer  was  engaged  for  the  same  work.  Under  date  of 
September,  1747,  in  the  Life  of  Brainerd,  it  is  said  that, 
"Brainerd  having  now,  with  much  deliberation,  considered 
the  subject  referred  to  him  by  the  Commissioners,  wrote 
them  about  this  time,  recommending  two  young  gentlemen 
of  his  acquaintance,  Mr.  Elihu  Spencer,  of  East  Haddam, 
and  Mr.  Job  Strong,  of  Northampton,  as  suitable  mission- 
aries to  the  Six  Nations.^  The  Commissioners  on  the 
receipt  of  this  letter,  .cheerfully  and  unanimously  agreed  to 
accept  of  and  employ  the  persons  whom  he  had  recom- 
mended." 

But  upon  David's  death,  in  1747,  his  brother  John  be- 
came the  principal  agent  of  the  Society,  and  it  was  with 
him  that  Mr.  Spencer  and  Mr.  Job  Strong  spent  a  winter 
(1748)  in  studying  Indian  languages,  and  otherwise  avail- 
ing themselves  of  the  Brainerd  experience.  Jonathan  Ed- 
wards was  himself  an  active  friend  of  the  Indians,  and 
after  his  removal  from  Northampton,  in  1750,  accepted,  at 
the  same  time,  a  call  to  the  church  at  Stockbridge,  and  an 
appointment  of  the  Boston  Commissioners  as  missionary 
to  the  Indians  living  in  that  part  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 
Spencer  passed  a  summer  with  Edwards,  and  accompanied 
him  to  Albany  to  witness  a  treaty  with  the  aborigines,  many 
of  whom  spent  their  winters  about  Stockbridge,  and  the 
rest  of  the  year  near  Schoharie,  beyond  Albany.  What 
it  was  to  travel  fromi  Stockbridge  to^  Albany  a  century 
ago,  may  be  learned  from  the  Rev.  Gideon  Hawley's  nar- 
rative oi  such  a  journey  in  1753.*  Mr.  Hawley  was  a 
teacher  and  minister  of  the  Indians,  under  Edwards'  in- 
structions, and  says  of  the  great  metaphysician :  "To  In- 
dians he  was  a  very  plain  and  practical  preacher;    upon  no 


*  In   Massachusetts   Historical    Collections,   and   in   the    Documentary   History   of 
New  York   (vol.  iii,  p.   10.33). 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  127 

occasion  did  he  display  any  metaphysical  knowledge  in  the 
pulpit." 

Thus  prepared,  Spencer  was  ordained  in  Boston,  Sep- 
tember 14,  1748,  and  went  to  the  Oneida  tribe — the  chief 
of  the  Six  Nations  of  the  Mohawks,  or  Iroquois.  His  sta- 
tion was  at  Onoquaqua  (afterwards  Unadilla),  at  the  head 
of  the  Susquehannah,  one  hundred  and  seventy  miles  south- 
west of  Albany,  and  one  hundred  and  thirty  beyond  any 
white  settlement.  One  of  the  results  of  his  mission  was  a 
vocabulary  of  the  Oneida  langfuag'e,  which  he  prepared. 
Hawley  says  he  "could  not  surmount  the  obstacles  he  met 
with."  These  obstacles  are  indefinitely  described  elsewhere, 
as  difficulties  connected  with  his  interpreter,  and  other 
causes  frustrating  his  usefulness.  He  soon  withdrew  from 
the  mission,  and  going  to  KHzabethtown  he  received  a  call 
from  the  Presbyterian  Church  left  vacant  by  the  death  of 
President  Dickinson.  Having  accepted  the  call  he  was  re- 
ceived by  the  Presbytery  of  New  York,  and  installed  Feb- 
ruary 7th,  1749.  Recording  that  date  in  his  family  Bible, 
he  writes :  "This  day  was  installed  E.  Spencer,  and  took 
the  great  charge  (onus  himneris  angelorum  formidandn^n) 
of  the  ministry  in  Elizabethtown ;  setatis  suae  28.  The 
Lord  help  me."  Mr.  Spencer  gave  part  of  his  time  to 
Shrewsbury.  In  1848  twO'  m'en  were  living  in  that  town, 
•one  in  his  ninety-seventh,  the  other  in  his  eighty-ninth  year, 
who  remembered  Mr.  Spencer,  and  showed  the  house  he 
occupied  on  his  visits.*  He  took  his  place  in  Synod,  Sep- 
tember, 1750,  at  their  meeting  at  Newark,  and  was  placed 
on  a  committee  of  five  for  drafting  proposals  for  a  reunion 
with  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia.  He  was  o^ften  on  the 
commission  for  the  interim.  In  1753  he  was  on  a  commit- 
tee to  settle  difficulties  in  what  was  then  our  only  church 


*  Letter  of  the  Rev.  Rufus  Taylor,  of  Shrewsbury,  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Miller. 
In  October,  1750,  Mr.  Spencer  was  married  to  a  daughter  of  John  Eaton,  of 
Eatontown,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Shrewsbury. 


128  HISTORY   OF  THE 

in  the  city  of  New  York;  the  subject  of  discord  being  the 
introduction  of  Watts's  Psalms  the  use  of  anthems,  and 
prayer  at  burials.*  In  1753,  Spencer  was  appointed  to  take 
his  part  in  supplying  Mr.  Tennent's  pulpit  in  Philadelphia, 
during  his  absence  in  Europe  for  the  College,  the  Synod 
directing  at  the  same  time  that,  "Mr.  Spencer's  congrega- 
tion be  supplied  in  his  absence  the  whole  of  the  time,  at  the 
request  of  his  excellency,  the  Governor"   (Belcher). 

When  Mr.  Davies  was  preparing  for  his  voyage  with 
Tennent,  in  September,  1753,  he  saw  much  of  Spencer, 
After  passing  a  night  at  his  house  in  Elizabethtown,  and 
proceeding  the  next  day  toi  Newark,  Davies  writes  in  his 
journal:  "The  Governor  insisted  that  I  should  preach  for 
Mr.  Spencer  next  Sunday  come  se'nnight,  that  he  might 
have  an  opportunity  of  hearing  me."  On  the  following 
Saturday  he  "sailed  to  Elizabethtown:  was  pleased  with 
the  company  of  my  brother  Mr.  Spencer,  and  Mr.  James 
Brown."  The  next  day  Davies  preached;  and  on  Tuesday 
retumed  to  Philadelphia  to  meet  the  Synod,  in  company 
with  Messrs.  Spencer,  Brainerd  and  Brown,  "and  spent 
the  time  in  pleasing  conversation,  principally  on  the  affairs 
of  the  Indians." 

At  the  Synod  of  October,  1755,  various  petitions  having 
been  presented  from  North  Carolina,  "setting  forth  their 
distressing  circumstances  for  want  of  a  preached  Gospel 
among  them,"  the  Synod  resolved  to  extend  what  relief 
was  in  their  power,  and  appointed  Mr.  Spencer  with  Mr. 
John  Brainerd  to  take  a  journey  thither  before  winter,  and 
supply  the  vacant  congregations  for  six  months,  or  as  long 
as  th'ey  should  think  necessary.  This  is  a  specimen  of  the 
manner  in  which  Synods  then  exercised  their  authority  over 
settled  ministers,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  congregations 
yielded  to  the  necessity  which  called  for  the  miissionary 

*  See  "Alexander  Gumming,"  in  Dr.  Sprague's  Annals,  vol.  i.  462.  "Records,"' 
Sept.  26,   1 754- 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  129 

services  of  their  pastors.  No  objection  from  any  O'f  these 
quarters  prevented  a  compliance  with  the  Synod's  direc- 
tion; the  entry  of  September,  1756,  being  that  "the  diffi- 
culties and  dangers  of  the  times  rendered  it  in  a  great 
degree  impracticable  for  Messrs.  Spencer  and  Brainerd  to 
answer  the  end  of  their  appointment  toi  the  southward,  and 
for  that  reason  said  appointments  were  not  fulfilled."  The 
difficulties  were  those  which  arose  from,  the  French  and 
Indian  incursions.  At  the  same  session  "th'e  Synod  agree 
that  an  address  be  prepared  and  presented  to  Lord  Loudoun, 
Commander-in-Chief  of  all  His  Majesty's  forces  in  North 
America,  and  they  do  appoint  Messrs.  Aaron  Burr,  Elihu 
Spencer,  David  Bostwick,  and  Caleb  Smith,  or  some  one  of 
them,  to  prepare  and  present  it,  in  the  name  of  this  Synod, 
on  the  first  proper  opportunity." 

In  1756  Mr.  Spencer  was  released  from  Elizabethtown, 
having  accepted  an  invitation  from-  the  church  at  Jamaica, 
Long  Island,  in  the  Presbyter)^  of  Suffolk,  vacant  by  the 
removal  of  Mr.  Bostwick  to  New  York.  After  a  ministry 
O'f  about  two  years  there,  as  stated  supply,  he  embraced 
an  offer  from  Governor  Delancey,  of  New  York,  O'f  a 
chaplaincy  tO'  the  troops  of  the  Province  then  detailing  for 
the  French  war.  The  Synod  made  provision  for  the 
Jamaica  pulpit,  "in  case  Mr.  Spencer  shall  go-  out  as  chap- 
lain with  the  New  York  forces."^  I  do  not  know  the 
nature  or  duration  of  his  services  in  this  connection,  but 
"Jamaica,  July  2,  1759,"  is  the  date  of  a  published  letter 
of  his  to  Dr.  (afterwards  President)  Ezra  Stiles,  on  "the 
state  of  the  dissenting  interest  in  the  Middle  Colonies  of 
America;"  and  "Shrewsbury.  November  3,"  of  the  same 
year,  is  the  date  of  a  postscript  added  to  it.  In  May,  1761, 
he  was  deceived  by  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick  from 
the  Suffolk  Presbytery,^  and  was  clerk  at  another  meeting 
in  the  same  month  in  Princeton,  and  in  August  in  Trenton. 
In  October  he  was  appointed  to  supply  three  Sabbaths  at 
9   PRES 


130  HISTORY   OF  THE 

Amboy  Southward,  Middletown  Point,  and  neighboring 
places;  in  April,  1762,  the  same  places,  "as  much  as  he 
can;"  in  October,  1762,  and  May,  1763,  one- fourth  of  his 
time  at  South  Amboy;  and  in  April,  1764,  four  Sabbaths 
along  the  seashore  towards  Egg  Harbor. 

The  day  on  which  the  Synod  of  New  York  provided  for 
Mr.  Spencer's  absence  with  the  army  (May  27,  1758),  was 
the  last  but  one  of  the  separation  or  schism.  The  two 
bodies  assembled  in  Philadelphia,  May  29,  and  constituted 
"The  Siynod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia."  The  num- 
ber of  our  ministers  in  all  the  Colonies  was  then  nearly  one 
hundred.  Mr.  Spencer  first  appeared  in  the  new  organiza- 
tion in  May  of  the  next  year,  when  he  was  again  put  on 
the  Synodal  Commission.  In  the  session  of  1761  he  was 
Moderator,  and  was  added  by  the  house  to  a  committee  ap- 
pointed to  devise  means  for  obtaining  funds  to  support  John 
Brainerd  in  his  Indian  mission.  As  has  been  already  stated 
in  the  notice  of  his  predecessor,  it  was  Mr.  Kirkpatrick 
who  reported  an  overture  from  this  committee,  upon  which 
it  was  determined  to  raise  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
for  the  maintenance  of  Mr.  Brainerd  another  year.  Mr. 
Spencer  opened  the  sessions  of  1762,  in  the  First  Church, 
Philadelphia,  with  a  sermon  f rom^  Acts  20 :  28.  The  matter 
of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Harker's  heretical  opinions,  the  issue  of 
which  has  been  mentioned  in  the  course  of  our  notice  of 
Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  came  before  this  meeting,  in  consequence 
of  Marker's  having,  "without  the  approbation  of  the  Synod, 
printed  a  book  containing  his  principles,"  and  Mr.  Spencer 
was  first  on  a  committee  to  examine  and  report  on  the  pub- 
lication, which  was  next  year  condemned. 

We  have  seen  that  Dr.  Macwhorter  was  associated  with 
Mr.  Kirkpatrick  in  college ;  that  they  were  candidates  and 
licentiates  together,  and  with  Mr.  Latta  were  commissioned 
to  itinerate  in  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.^  The  same 
excellent  man   was   also   connected   with    Mr.    Spencer   on 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  131 

another  important  mission.  The  Synod  meeting  in  Eliza- 
bethtown  in  May,  1764,  learning  that  many  congregations 
in  the  South,  particularly  in  North  Carolina,  needed  a 
proper  organization,  deputed  Messrs.  Spencer  and  Mac- 
whorter  to  visit  that  region,  as  general  overseers  and  coun- 
sellors for  the  welfare  of  the  Church.  They  were  to  form 
and  regulate  congregations,  adjust  their  bounds,  ordain 
elders,  administer  the  sacraments,  instruct  the  people  in 
discipline,  direct  them  how  to  obtain  the  stated  ministry, 
and  do  all  things  which  their  inchoate  or  feeble  condition 
required;  not  failing  to  assure  the  people  everywhere  of 
the  Synod's  interest  in  them,  as  the  highest  judicatory  of 
the  Church,  and  its  readiness  to  do  all  in  its  power  for  their 
assistance.  XJlnder  the  date  of  May  16,  1765,  we  have  the 
Siynod's  reco^rd  as  follows:  "Messrs.  Spencer  and  Mac- 
whorter  fulfilled  their  mission  to  the  southward.  Mr. 
Macwhorter's  pulpit  was  supplied  during  his  absence,  and 
the  Presbytery  of  Brunswick  were  satisfied  with  the  care 
taken  tO'  supply  Mr.  Spencer's  people."  Mr.  Macwhorter 
contracted  a  disease  during  this  journey,  from  which  he  did 
not  fully  recover  for  two  years.  A  journal  oi  this  apostolic 
tour  would  be  O'f  great  interest  and  value.  The  influence 
of  two  ministers  of  such  piety,  prudence,  and  talents  must 
have  been  as  happy  as  it  was  welcome.  The  effects  of  their 
visit  are  partly  developed  in  the  proceedings  oi  their  Pres- 
byteries and  Synod  after  their  return.  In  Synod  a  commit- 
tee, at  the  head  of  which  were  Doctors  Alison  and  Finley, 
were  appointed  to  converse  with  the  two'  missionaries,  not 
only  with  reference  to  their  expenses,  which  Synod  had 
assumed,  but  "for  the  settlement  of  Gospel  ministers  in 
Carolina."  At  a  meeting  held  by  the  Presbytery  during  the 
same  session  of  Synod  at  which  they  made  their  report  a 
call  was  presented  for  Mr.  Spencer  from  the  people  of 
Hawfields,  Eno,  and  Little  Run,  in  North  Carolina ;  but 
"upon  the  whole  he  declared  he  could  not  see  his  way  clear 


132  HISTORY   OF  THE 

to'  accept  of  it,  and  Returned  it  toi  the  commissioner."  Im^ 
mediately  another  call  was  presented  from'  Gather's  (after- 
wards Thyatira)  and  Fourth  Creek  settlements,  in  North 
Carolina,  ior  Mr.  Spencer,  and  to  this  he  returned  the  same 
unfavorable  answer.®  It  appears  that  the  same  calls  were 
introduced  into  Synod  by  the  committee  for  overtures,  who 
also  reported  a  supplication  for  supplies  fro^m  the  inhabit- 
ants between  the  Yadkin  and  Catawba  rivers ;  "particularly 
for  the  removal  of  Mr.  Spencer  and  Mr.  Macwhorter  to 
settle  among  them;"  two  other  supplications  for  supplies 
from  Bethel  and  Poplar  Tent,  in  M'ecklenburg-  county;  the 
same  from  New  Providence  and  Six-mile  Spring*;  a  call 
for  Macwhorter  from  Hopewell  and  Centre  congregations; 
and  supplications  from  Long-lanes,  in  South  Carolina.  The 
Synod  proceeded  to  m'eet,  as  far  as  was  in  their  power,  the 
numerous  opportunities  opened  through  their  judicious 
measures,  by  appointing  six  ministers  to  visit  North  Caro- 
lina, and  each  of  them  to  tarry  half  a  year  in  the  most 
destitute  neighbo'rhoods. 

Next  year  Sugar  Creek,  Fishing  Creek,  Bethel,  the 
Jersey  Settlement,  Centre  congregation,  Poplar  Tent,  and 
Rocky  River  united  in  a  petition  "for  one  or  more  of  the 
Rev.  Messrs.  Spencer,  Lewis,  Macwhorter,  and  James 
Caldwell  to  be  sent  there,  promising  that  the  sum  of  eighty 
pounds  be  paid  by  any  of  these  congregations  in  which  he 
shall  choose  to  spend  half  of  his  time,  and  another  eighty 
pounds  by  the  vacant  congregations  he  shall  supply."  The 
record  proceeds :  "This  petition  being  read,  the  several 
gentlemen  mentioned  in  it  were  interrogated  whether  they 
would  comply  with  this  request,  to  which  each  of  them 
returned  a  negative  answer."  Petitions  for  supplies  were 
poured  in  at  the  same  meeting  from  various  sections  of 
Virginia,  the  Carolinas,  and  Georgia,  but  all  the  Synod 
could  do  was  to  nominate  seven  ministers  to  make  journeys 
throughout  those  districts,  as  their  other  engagements 
would  permit. 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  133 

In  his  notes  on  this  mission  of  the  Synod,  Mr.  Foote, 
after  mentioning  that  the  report  of  the  two  deputies  has  not 
been  preserved,  remarks: 

"We  are  not  left  at  a  loss  for  the  names  of  part  of  the  congrega- 
tions whose  bounds  they  adjusted,  as  in  that  (1765)  and  the  succeed- 
ing year,  calls  were  sent  in  for  pastors  from  Steele  Creek,^  Providence, 
Hopewell,  Centre,  Rocky  River,  and  Poplar  Tent,  which  entirely  sur- 
rounded Sugar  Creek,  besides  those  in  Rowan  and  Iredell.  These 
seven  congregations  were  in  Mecklenburg,  except  a  part  of  Centre, 
which  lay  in  Rowan  (now  Iredell),  and  in  their  extensive  bounds  com- 
prehended almost  the  entire  county."  "This  mission  was  fulfilled  to 
such  entire  satisfaction,  that  these  gentlemen  were  importuned  to  set- 
tle in  Carolina,  and  Mr.  Macwhorter  was  ultimately  chosen  President 
of  the  College  erected  at  Charlotte.  From  the  term  of  this  visit  we 
may  consider  the  bounds  of  the  old  churches  in  Orange  and  Concord 
Presbyteries  as  settled,  and  the  sessions  as  generally  duly  organized. 
Previous  to  this,  the  settlements  acted  independently  in  their  religious 
matters."* 

In  Januaiy,  1765,  the  Rev,  John  Rodgers,  the  pastor  at 
the  town  of  St.  George's,  Delaware,  accepted  a  call  from 
the  first  church  in  the  city  of  New  York.  Both  Mr. 
Rodgers  and  the  congregation  appear  to  have  considered 
Mr.  Spencer  as  a  desirable  successor;  for  in  S}'nod  on  the 
20th  of  May,  1765,  "at  the  request  of  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Rodgers,  and  of  the  congregation  of  St.  George's,  Mr. 
Spencer  is  appointed  to  supply  that  congregation  four 
weeks  before  Mr.  Rodgers  removes  from  them."  In  the 
following  September,  the  proper  steps  having  been  first 
taken  in  the  Presbytery  of  Lancaster,  to  which  St.  George's 
belonged,  that  congregation  and  Apoquiminey,^  which  was 
connected  with  it  under  Mr.  Rodgers,  presented  their  call, 
and  upon  Mr.  Spencer's  expressing  his  acceptance,  he  was 
transferred  from  New  Brunswick  to  Newcastle — ^the 
bounds  of  Newcastle  and  Donegal  having  been  changed  for 
a  single  year,  and  the  names  of  Lancaster  and  Carlisle 
substituted,  but  the  original  ones  being  now  restored.     On 


*  Foote:    North  Carolina,   ch.   xiv.  xxiv. 


134  HISTORY    OF   THE 

the  seventh  January,  1766,  Spencer  was  received  by  New- 
castle, and  took  his  seat,  together  with  Mr.  Valentine 
Dushane  as  the  elder  of  St.  George's.  On  the  seventeenth 
of  the  following  April  he  was  installed  over  the  imited  con- 
gregations.^ 

Mr.  Spencer  was  one  of  the  witnesses  of  the  serene  and 
happy  close  of  the  life  of  President  Finley,  which  took 
place  in  Philadelphia,  July  17,  1766.  On  the  day  before 
that  event,  Mr.  Spencer  said  to  him:  "I  have  come  tO'  see 
you  confirm  by  facts  the  Gospel  yoU;  have  been  preaching." 
In  reply  to  his  friend's  inquiries,  the  dying  minister  said 
he  felt  full  of  triumph:  "I  triumph  through  Christ. 
Nothing  clips  my  wings  but  the  thoughts  of  my  dissolution 
being  prolonged.  Oh !  that  it  were  to-night !  My  very  soul 
thirsts  for  eternal  rest."  Mr.  Spencer  asked  him  what  he 
saw  in  the  future  to  excite  such  strong  desires.  "I  see," 
said  he,  "the  eternal  love  and  goodness  of  God;  I  see  the 
fullness  oi  the  Mediator.  I  see  the  love  of  Jesus.  Oh !  to 
be  dissolved,  and  to  be  with  him !  I  long  to  be  clothed  with 
the  complete  righteousness  of  Christ."  At  his  request  Mr. 
S'pencer  prayed:  "Pray  to  God,"  said  he,  "to  preserve  me 
from  evil — ^to  keep  me  from  dishonoring  his  great  name  in 
this  critical  hour,  and  to  support  me  with  his  presence  in 
my  passage  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death." 

The  Rev.  Mr.  Dubois,  the  present  Clerk  of  the  Pres- 
bytery of  Newcastle,  has  kindly  furnished  me  with  the  an- 
nexed notes  from  the  books  in  his  charge. 

"Between  April  16,  1766,  and  March  22,  1769,  there  are  a  number 
of  long  minutes,  the  substance  of  which  is  that  overtures  were  made 
to  have  the  congregations  of  Drawyers  and  Pencader^"  united  with 
St.  George's  and  the  Forest;  that  the  Presbytery  seeing  that  this 
would  require  too  much  labor  for  one  minister,  agreed  to  it  on  condi- 
tion that  they  would  procure  an  associate  pastor,  to  which  they  all 
consented.  But  either  a  suitable  associate  could  not  be  found,  or  the 
plan  did  not  work  well,  and  accordingly,  at  the  suggestion  of  Drawyers 
and  Pencader  that  'the  said  union  was  not  for  the  edification  of  the 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  135 

Church,'  and  'the  people  of  St.  George's  and  the  Forest  making  no 
objection  against  having  said  union  dissolved,'  it  was  dissolved  March 
22,  1769. 

"The  same  day — 'A  petition,  by  a  representative  from  the  Forest 
congregation,  under  the  care  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Spencer,  was  made  to 
the  Presbytery,  requesting  that  they  would  confirm  a  line  lately  drawn 
between  them  and  the  congregation  of  St.  George's,  and  also  give  the 
people  of  the  Forest  congregation  leave,  according  to  terms,  stipulated 
in  their  subscription  for  the  Rev.  Mr.  Spencer,  to  try  to  raise  their 
subscription,  in  order  to  obtain  more  of  the  labors  of  their  minister; 
the  Presbytery  grant  the  petition,  so  far  that  the  Forest  congregation 
may  try  their  strength,  according  to  said  line,  and  that  both  they  and 
St.  George's  lay  their  subscriptions  before  this  Presbytery  at  their  next 
meeting,  at  which  time  the  Presbytery  will  more  fully  judge  of,  and 
settle  the  whole  affair.' 

"This  is  not  referred  to  again,  and  seems  not  to  have  been  done, 
but  soon  after  comes  this  minute : 

"October  19,  1769.  'The  Rev.  Elihu  Spencer  informs  the  Presbytery 
that  the  place  where  he  now  lives  does  not  agree  with  his  own  and 
his  family's  constitution,  so  that  his  health  has  been  much  impaired, 
and,  should  he  continue  there,  is  likely  to  be  wholly  destroyed ;  there- 
fore he  is  under  the  disagreeable  necessity  of  requesting  a  dissolution 
of  his  pastoral  relation  to  the  congregations  of  St.  George's  and  the 
Forest.  A  commissioner  from  St.  George's  agrees  with  Mr.  Spencer 
respecting  the  necessity  of  his  request ;  upon  the  whole,  the  Presbytery- 
judge  that  they  have  clearness  to  dissolve  Mr.  Spencer's  pastoral  rela- 
tion to  the  aforesaid  congregations,  and  hereby  do  dissolve  it.' 

"After  this  he  was  not  present  at  any  of  the  meetings,  and  I  can 
find  no  mention  of  him,  until  at  a  meeting  in  Philadelphia,  during  the 
sessions  of  the  Synod,  he  was  present,  and  this  minute  occurs : 

"May  16,  1771.  'Mr.  Spencer,  having  removed  out  of  the  bounds 
of  this  Presbytery  into  the  bounds  of  the  Presbytery  of  New  Bruns- 
wick, requests  a  dismission  from  us  in  order  to  join  themi,  which  is 
granted.' " 

In  a  Philadelphia  newspaper  of  the  day,  it  is  mentioned 
that  Mr.  Spencer  preached  at  the  funeral  of  the  wife  of  the 
Rev.  Joseph  Montg'omery.^^  of  Kent  county,  Maryland, 
March,  1769,  in  the  Presbyterian  church,  Georgetown. 

It  was  on  the  eighteenth  of  October,  1769 — the  day  be- 
fore his  separation  from  Delaware — ^that  the  congregations 
of  Trenton  and  Maidenhead  obtained  permission  from  their 
Presbytery  to  call  Mr.  Spencer;  and  although  he  was  not 


136  HISTORY   OF  THE 

dismissed  by  Newcastle,  nor  received  by  New  Brunswick, 
until  the  spring  of  1771,  he  was  elected  a  Trustee  of  the 
Trenton  church  and  President  of  the  Board,  May  7,  1770. 
His  salary  was  fixed  to  begin  from  October  17,  1769,  which 
was  probably  the  time  of  his  taking  charge  of  the  congre- 
gation. 

Until  his  actual  reception  in  Presbytery  he  is  only  "re- 
quested" to  open  a  subscription  for  the  college  in  Trenton, 
Hopewell  and  Cranbury.  After  that  he  is  "ordered"  to  do 
it.  Fromi  the  year  1752,  till  his  death,  Mr.  Spencer  was 
a  Trustee  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey.^-  He  was  on 
the  committee  in  the  first  year  of  his  office  to  negotiate  with 
the  people  of  Princeton  in  view  of  establishing  the  College 
there.  The  short  distance  between  Princeton  and  Trenton, 
and  his  relation  to  the  College,  often  secured,  as  in  the  case 
of  his  predecessor,  Cowell,  and  successor,  Armstrong,  ex- 
changes of  pulpit  services.  The  record  of  one  such  visit 
is  preserved  in  the  blessing  it  was  instrumental  in  bringing 
to  a  student  who  became  an  eminent  minister.  This  was 
James  Feuilleteau  Wilson,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Col- 
lege in  1772,  when  there  was  a  general  awakening  on  the 
subject  of  religion  among  the  students.  Wilson  for  some 
time  decidedly,  and  even  rudely,  resisted  every  effort  to 
draw  his  attention  to  his  spiritual  condition,  and  was  the 
more  averse  in  consequence  of  his  prejudices  as  a  member 
O'f  the  Church  of  England.  But  it  was  one  evening  while 
Mr.  Spencer  was  preaching  in  the  College  Hall  that  his 
conscience  became  deeply,  and  for  a  tim.e,  hopelessly  affected. 
After  gaining  relief,  he  became  a  humble,  zealous  Christian. 
Upon  his  graduation,  in  1773,  he  went  to  London,  where  his 
father  resided,  intending  to  take  orders  in  the  English 
Church,  but  further  reflection  and  inquiry  led  him  to  return 
to  Princeton,  and  to  the  study  of  theology  under  Dr.  With- 
erspoon.  After  the  interruption  of  his  course  by  the  war, 
during  part  of  which  time  he  studied  and  practiced  medi- 
cine, he  was  licensed  by  the  Presbytery  of  Orange,  and 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  137 

became  pastor  of  Fourth  Creek  (the  church  established  by 
Mr.  Spencer)  and  Concord,  in  North  Carolina.  He  died  in 
1804.     Two  of  his  sons  were  in  the  ministry.* 

*  Foote's  North   Carolina,  chap.   xxv. 


CHAPTER    XII. 

Dr.  Spencer's  Congregation. 

1769— 1773. 

The  town  and  country  congregations  of  Trenton  still 
preserved  their  union.  The  people  of  Maidenhead  had  their 
distinct  corporation,  but  shared  the  services  of  the  same 
pastor  with  Trenton.  Each  of  the  Trenton  houses  had  its 
own  spiritual  officers.  Thus  May  6,  1771,  Samuel  Hill 
and  Ebenezer  Co-well  were  chosen  "Elders  for  the  town;" 
Jacob  Carle,  John  Howell,  and  Timothy  Hendrickson,  "for 
the  old  house,"  and  Benjamin  Smith  "a  deacon  for  Tren- 
ton." The  Trustees  acted  for  both.  Thus,  at  the  meeting 
just  mentioned,  it  was  "ordered  by  the  Board  that  the 
Treasurer  pay  eight  pounds  out  of  the  interest  due  on  the 
fifty  pounds  left  to  the  congregation  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
Co'well,  deceased,  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Spencer,  toi  make  up  the 
Old  House  subscription  for  the  year  1770,  and  that  the 
members  belonging  to  Trenton  meeting-house  have  liberty 
to  apply  the  like  sum  out  of  the  interest  aforesaid,  on  the 
like  occasion." 

The  subjoined  document  will  show  the  relation  in  which 
Mr.  Spencer  stood  to  the  three  congregations.  The  signa- 
tures will  serve  to  record  the  names  of  the  heads  of  the 
families  in  the  town  charge  as  they  existed  in  November, 
1769,  and  a  few  years  afterwards. 

"Whereas  it  is  mutually  agreed  between  the  townships  of  Trenton 
and  Maidenhead,  to  raise  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  as  the  annual 
salary  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Elihu  Spencer,  during  such  time  as  he  shall 
be  and  remain  as  their  settled  minister,  and  to  preach  one  Sabbath  in 

(139) 


140 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


the  town  meeting-house,  one  Sabbath  in  Maidenhead  meeting-house, 
and  every  third  Sabbath  at  the  old  house  in  the  upper  part  of  the 
township  of  Trenton,  and  so  to  continue  one  third  part  of  the  time  at 
each  meeting-house ;  and  whereas,  the  congregation  belonging  to 
each  of  the  meeting-houses  aforesaid,  have  agreed  to  raise  by  way  of 
subscription,  the  sum  of  fifty  pounds,  as  their  part  and  share  of  the 
annual  salary  aforesaid,  we,  the  subscribers,  being  desirous  to  en- 
courage and  support  the  ministry  of  the  Gospel,  and  as  members  of, 
and  belonging  to  the  meeting-house  in  the  town-spot  of  Trenton,  do 
hereby  severally  promise  and  engage  to  pay  unto  the  Trustees  of  the 
Presbyterian  congregation  of  Trenton  the  sums  by  us  herein  respec- 
tively subscribed ;  to  be  paid  half-yearly,  in  two  equal  payments  during 
each  and  every  year  the  said  Mr.  Spencer  shall  be  and  remain  their 
settled  minister,  and  preach  alternately  one  third  part  of  his  time  at 
each  house  as  aforesaid.  In  testimony  whereof  we  have  hereunto  set 
our  hands  with  the  several  sums  subscribed  this  eighteenth  day  of 
November,  Anno  Dom.,  1769: 


Samuel   Tucker, 
Alexander  Chambers, 
Benjamin  Smith, 
John  Chambers, 
Ebenezer  Cowell, 
William  Tucker, 
Benjamin  Yard, 
Elijah  Bond, 
William   Bryant, 
A.   [Abigail]   Coxe, 
Archibald  Wm.  Yard, 
David  Pinkerton, 
James  Paxton, 
Abraham  Cottnam, 
Hezekiah    Howell, 
Isaac  Decow, 
Micajah  How, 
Mrs.    [Jean]    Cumines, 
Dunlap   Adams, 
Joseph  Higbee, 
Hannah  Merseilles, 
Isaac  Smith, 
Isaac  Pearson,    (1770,) 
Daniel  Coxe, 
John  Wigton, 
David  Bright, 
Samuel  Bellerjeau, 
Richard  Collier, 


Godfrey  Wimer, 

Lott  Dunbar, 

Hugh  Campbell, 

John  Reeder, 

William  Von  Veghter, 

Samuel  Anderson, 

Richard  Howell, 

Benjamin  Woolsey, 

James  Mathis, 

William  Pidgeon, 

George  Creed,   (June,  1770,) 

R.  L.  Hooper,   (Sept.  1770,) 

Jeremiah    Anderson, 

Samuel  Hill,' 

Robert  Singer,    (Sept.,   1771,) 

Job  Moore,    (1770,) 

John  Courtnay,   (1771,) 

John  Chambers,  Jr., 

John  Ely, 

Lewis  Case, 

Abraham   Hunt,    (1772,) 

Craghead  Ryle,   (1773,) 

Joseph  Clunn, 

Andrew  Wilson, 

Hugh  Runyon, 

John  James, 

John  Clunn, 

Henry  Drake, 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  141 

Richard  Tennent,  James  Ashmoor, 

William   Reeder,  John  Fitch, 

Samuel  Ellis,  Mrs.   Livesey, 

James  Wilson,  Joseph  Brittain, 

William  Smith,  Samuel  Henry, 

Robert  Booth,  Andrew  Reed, 

Elizabeth  Bell,  John  Yard, 

George  Brown,  Stephen  Lowrey." 

The  Trustees  at  the  date  of  this  agreement  were  Charles 
Clark,  Alexander  Chambers,  Abraham  Hunt,  Joseph  Reed, 
Jr.,  Samuel  Tucker,  Obadiah  Howell,  and  Daniel  Clark. 

Of  the  names  thus  brought  before  us,  which  have  not 
already  been  the  subject  of  notice,  I  proceied  to  give  such 
particulars  as  I  have  been  able  to  find,  and  as  are  consistent 
with  the  general  purpose. 

Jacob  Carle  (elder  in  1771)  died  on  his  farm  in  1800. 
He  left  sons,  John  and  Israel;  a  grandson,  Jacob;  daugh- 
ters, Hannah,  wife  of  Aaron  Vancleve,  and  Elizabeth,  wife 
of  John  Van  Mater.  In  a  minute  of  the  Trustees,  March 
31,  1787,  it  was  "agreed  that  Mr.  Jacob  Carle,  or  his  son, 
Captain  Israd  Carle,  attend  Mr.  Armstrong  to  the  Presby- 
tery." In  the  church  porch  is  a  stone  marking  the  death 
of  Eliza,  wife  of  Israel  Carle,  March  12,  1790,  aged  29 
years.  Carle  is  a  Huguenot  name ;  Jean  Carle  was  minister 
of  the  French  Protestant  church  in  the  city  of  New  York 
in  1763.* 

Benjamin  Smith's  name  will  be  commemorated  in  a 
future  chapter. 

Ebenezer  Coweee  was  a  brother  of  the  pastor,  and  his 
residuary  legatee.^  He  was  chosen  an  elder  for  the  town 
church,  May  6,  1771.  In  1782-4  he  was  a  member  of  the 
"Committee  of  the  West  Jersey  Proprietors,"  with  Joseph 
Reed,  Jr.,  Jonathan  D.  Sergeant,  Clement  Biddle,  and 
Daniel  Ellis.  He  died  May  4,  1799.  His  wife,  Sarah, 
died  in  1774.     His  children  were  John,  Ebenezer,  Joseph, 


Documentary  History,  vol.   iii.   p.   489. 


142  HISTORY   OF  THE 

Robert,  Eunice,  and  Sarah  (Bowlsby).  The  eldest  of  these 
was  a  physician,  and  died  in  1789.  A  "Robert  Cowell" 
died  very  suddenly,  July  5,  1808;  and  a  "Joseph  Cowell" 
died  September  30,  1808,  aged  63;  and  at  Broadway, 
Warren  county,  July  30,  1829,  died,  "Eunice  Cowell,  at 
an  advanced  age,  formerly  oi  Trenton." 

WiiviviAM  Tucker  was  brother  of  Samuel  Tucker,  the 
trustee,  and  died  January  16,  1790,  aged  55.  His  wife's 
name  was  Mercy ;  his  sons  William  and  Ellet ;  his  daughter 
Mary,  who  was  married  to  James  B.  Machett,  a  native  of 
Trenton,  and  a  member  of  the  co-ngregation.  Mrs.  Machett 
died  at  St.  Charles,  Missouri,  July  20,  1833,  in  her  71st 
year;  Mr.  Machett,  at  the  same  place,  August  i,  1833, 
in  his  80th  year. 

Elijah  Bond  was  probably  an  Episcopalian,  but  one  of 
a  number  who  had  pews  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  as  well 
as  their  own.^  By  his  will,  proved  in  1786,  he  bequeathed 
five  hundred  pounds  to  St.  Michael's  Church,  the  interest 
of  which  was  to  be  paid  to  the  minister,  in  addition  to  his 
salary,  provided  one  should  be  appointed  and  should  offici- 
ate within  sieven  years  after  his  decease. 

In  the  Trenton  Gazette  of  June,  1784,  Elijah  Bond  ad- 
vertises at  public  sale  a  farm  on  which  Major  William 
Trent  had  lately  resided,  within  two  miles  of  Trenton,  and 
containing  about  seven  hundred  acres.  This  propierty  is  in 
the  vicinity  of  Lamberton,  and  was  purchased  by  Barnt  De 
Klyn,  and  in  November,  1785,  the  mansion  was  destroyed 
by  fire.  It  is  not  much  out  of  place  in  this  connection  to 
mention  that  Mr.  De  Klyn,  who  was  a  member  of  our 
church,  was  of  a  Huguenot  family,  born  in  Boston,  October 
31,  1745,  and  died  on  his  farm,  September  i,  1824.  A 
daughter  oif  Mr.  De  Klyn — the  widow  of  General  John 
Beatty — is  among  the  living  members  of  oiir  church.^  In 
October,  1857,  this  Venerable  lady,  "as  a  memorial  of  love 
to  this  church,"  presented  a  valuable  silver  flagon,  inherited 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  143 

from  her  parents,  which,  according  to  her  desire,  the  session 
accepted  for  the  use  of  the  communion  table,  and  to  be 
kept  without  alteration. 

William  Bryant  was  a  physician,  and  in  his  more  ad- 
vanced years,  associated  with  him  in  practice  the  well- 
remembered  Dr.  Belleville.^  Dr.  Bryant  was  a  son  of 
Captain  William  Bryant,  of  Perth  Amboy,  whose  tomb- 
stone in  that  town  records  that  he  made  fifty-five  voyages 
between  New  York  and  London,  and  died  in  1772,  at  the 
age  of  88.  His  wife  survived  him.  "It  is  presumied,"  says 
Mr.  Whitehead,  "that  they  left  tw'o  children — one  son, 
Dr.  William  Bryant,  who  was  living  at  Trenton  in  1776, 
and  thence  supplied  his  mother's  wants ;  and  one  daughter, 
Mary,  who  crossed  the  Atlantic  with  her  father  in  early 
life,  and  resided  some  time  in  London,  where  she  became 
acquainted  with  the  Rev.  Dr.  Watts,  under  whose  instruc- 
tions she  received  those  religious  impressions  which  in  after 
life  'brought  forth  fruit  abundantly,'  being  eminent  for  her 
piety  and  benevolen(ie.  She  became  the  wife  of  the  Hon. 
Wm.  Peartree  Smith,  of  New  York,  and  subsequently  of 
New  Jersey — a  scholar  and  a  Christian."* 

Archibald  William  Yard  was  one  of  the  sons  of 
Joseph  Yard,  the  Trustee.  He  died  March  8,  1810,  at  the 
age  of  78.  Benjamin,  another  subscriber,  was  Joseph's 
brother. 

Mrs.  Abigail  Coxe  and  Daniel  Coxe  were  of  the  family 
of  that  name  which  was  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  re- 
spectable among  the  large  land-owners.  Their  more  im- 
mediate membership  was  with  the  Church  of  England,  and 
their  loyalty  to  the  mother  country  survived  the  Revolu- 
tion. In  the  case  of  Coxe  z's.  Gulick,  in  1829,  it  was  con- 
tended that  on  the  third  July,  1776,  Daniel  Coxe,  resid- 
ing in  Trenton,  was  a  subject  of  Great  Britain,  that  he  with- 
drew from  the  State  in  1777,  at  the  time  of  his  decease  lived 

*  History  of  Perth  Amboy,  p.  145. 


144  HISTORY    OF   THE 

under  the  British  Government,  and  never  acknowledged 
allegiance  to  New  Jersey.* 

David  Pinke;rton^  is  supposed  to  have  died  in  1781,. 
leaving  a  family  of  children  named  David,  Jane,  Ann,  John, 
Samuel,  Joseph,  William  and  Mary,  to  whom,  with  his  wife, 
he  bequeathed  his  "shop-goods,  cows  and  horses,"  dwelling 
house  and  lot,  "with  my  two  orchard  lots  and  meadow  lot, 
and  my  little  farm  where  Joseph  Roberts  lives.  *  *  *  j 
thus  take  my  leave  of  a  troublesome  world."  The  witnesses 
of  his  will  were  three  of  his  co-signers  in  the  congregation — • 
Howe,  Moore  and  Woolsey.  Another  of  them,  Decow, 
was  an  executor,  and  a  fifth,  Paxton,  was  the  Surrogate 
before  whom  it  was  brought  to  probate.  Mr.  Pinkerton's 
son  and  namesake  was  a  clerk  in  the  Trenton  Bank,  and  is 
remembered  for  his  passion  for  fishing  in  the  Delaware 
after  bank  hours.  The  only  stone  in  our  yard  that  bears 
the  name  of  Pinkerton  is  that  of  a  child  (John)  who  died 
Pebruaiy  9,  1769.  In  August,  1794,  there  was  a  John 
Pinkerton,  Jr.,  "intending  shortly  to  remove  to  Philadel- 
phia." 

Joseph  Paxton  was  the  Surrogate  just  named.  In  the 
portico  of  the  church  are  memorials  of  Paxtons,  namely, 
Joseph  Paxton,  who  died  September  15,  1750;  aged  48. 
(The  Rev.  Mr.  Cowell  was  one  of  his  executors.)  Jane 
Paxton,  June  i,  1768;  2y  years.  Children  of  Paxtons 
1747-8. 

Abraham  Cottnam  was  a  magistrate.  In  April,  1778, 
his  executors  (Robert  Hoops,  his  son-in-law,  and  George 
Cottnam,  his  son)  advertise  for  the  recovery  of  his  dockets, 
taken  from  the  office  of  Ebenezer  Cowell,  Esq.,  when  the 
enemy  were  in  Trenton.  They  offer  for  sale  what  had 
probably  been  the  testator's  residence,  "Dowsdale,  near 
Trenton,   on  the  Hopewell   road."     His   will,   which   was 


*  Halsted's  Reports,  v.   328.      Sabine's  American  lyOyalists,  p.   232.     Whitehead's 
Perth  Amboy,  p.  201.     Field's  Provincial  Courts,  p.   185. 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  145 

proved  in  February,  1776,  directs  his  body  to  be  "laid  in 
Trenton  church  yard,  as  near  to  my  first  wife  and  children 
as  may  be  convenient,  *  *  *  ^jj-j^  ^^  little  expense  as 
possible,  consistent  with  decency."  Robert  Lettis  Hooper 
and  Benjamin  Smith  were  two  of  the  witnesses  of  his  will, 
and  Hon.  Daniel  Coxe  was  an  executor.  He  desired  and 
entreated  his  friend,  William^  Pidgeon,  Esq.,  to  assist  the 
executors  with  his  advice.  His  wife  was  a  daughter  of 
Joseph  Warrell,  SrJ  He  gave  to  his  son,  Warrell  Cottnam, 
all  his  law  books,  including  those  which  he  claimed  under 
the  will  of  Joseph  Warrell,  Esq.,  the  elder,  and  to  the  same 
"his  mother's  family-pedigree  roll  by  her  mother's  side, 
being  of  the  Bradshaw  family." 

The  senior  Warrell  here  alluded  to,  was  Attorney-General 
in  the  administration  of  Governor  Morris,  and  died  in  1758. 
He  left  his  own  pedigree-roll  to  his  son;  his  wife's  to  Mrs. 
Cottnam.  David  Cowell  and  Peter  Kemble  were  witnesses 
to  the  will. 

Joseph  Warrell,  Jr.,  died  in  Trenton  in  1775.  His  will 
directed  that  his  body  be  buried  as  near  as  possible  to  his 
parents,  in  the  Trenton  church  yard,  but  if  he  should  hap- 
pen to  die  a  considerable  distance  from  Trenton,  "I  will  that 
by  no  means  my  estate  shall  be  put  to  the  expense  of  a 
conveyance  thither."  His  grave  is  in  our  ground,  near 
the  church,  and  is  thus  inscribed : 

"In  the  memory  of  Joseph  Warrell,  Esq.,  who  departed  this  life 
March  6th,  1775;  aged  36  years.  This  stone  is  erected,  not  from  pomp, 
or  pageantry,  but  from  true  affection. 

"For  other  thoughts  employ  the  widowed  wife ; 
The  best  of  husbands,  loved  in  private  life. 
Bids  her  with  tears  to  raise  this  humble  stone, 
That  holds  his  ashes,  and  expects  her  own." 

HezEkiah  HowKLL.  "An  aged  and  respectable  inhabi- 
tant," of  this  name,  died  Olctober  15,  1800. 

Isaac  Decow  was  for  a  time  the  High  Sheriff  of  Hunter- 
don.^ Isaac  Decow,  Alderman,  died  June,  1795,  and  was 
10   PRES 


146  HISTORY   OF  THE 

buried  in  the  Friends'  Meeting  ground.  Perhaps  it  was 
an  ancestor  of  the  family,  of  whom  Dr.  FrankHn's  Auto- 
biography makes  mention,  when  he  says  that  among  the 
principal  people  of  New  Jersey,  with  whom'  he  made  ac- 
quaintance in  1727,  when  he  was  printing  paper  money  for 
the  Province,  was  "Isaac  Decow,  the  Surveyor-General, 
*  *  *  a  shrewd,  sagacious  old  man,  who  told  me  that  he 
began  for  himself  when  young  by  wheeling  clay  for  the 
brickmakers,  learned  to  write  after  he  was  of  age,  carried 
the  chain  for  surveyors,  who  taught  him  surveying,  and  he 
had  now  by  his  industry  acquired  a  good  estate ;  'and,'  said 
he,  'I  foresee  that  you  will  soon  work  this  man  [Keimer] 
out  of  his  business,  and  make  a  fortune  in  it  at  Philadel- 
phia.' He  had  then  not  the  least  intimation  of  my  intention 
to  set  up  there  or  anywhere." 

MiCAjAH  How  was  the  second  who  bore  the  name  of 
the  old  prophet.  The  first,  a  shoemaker,  died  in  1740,  who 
had  a  son  Samuel,  and  a  kinsman,  Israel  Hewlings.  Of 
this  family  was  the  Rev.  Thomas  Yardley  How,^  for  a 
time  Rector  of  Grace  Church  (Episcopal),  New  York, 
who  had  a  share  in  the  celebrated  church  controversy  with 
Hobart,  Linn,  Beasley,  Mason,  Miller  and  others  in  the 
early  part  of  the  present  century.  The  Trenton  newspaper 
of  January  14,  1799,  announces  the  death  of  Micajah  How, 
Esq.,  formerly  Sheriff  of  the  county  of  Hunterdon,  and 
one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  of  the 
county.  In  July,  1807,  Dr.  William  Innesly,  of  Chester 
county,  Pennsylvania,  was  married  to  "Mary,  daughter  of 
the  late  Micajah  How,  Esq.,  of  this  place."  January  i, 
1 83 1,  died,  "Mary,  wife  of  Dr.  Inslee,  and  daughter  of 
Micajah  How,  Esq.,  deceased,   formerly  of  Trenton." 

Six  of  the  subscribers  seem  to  have  lived  in  the  same 
neighborhood  in  February,  1772,  as  at  that  time  a  fire  broke 
out  in  the  house  of  Dunlap  Adams,  and  spread  to  those  of 
Merseilles,  Cumings,  Moore,  Pinkerton  and  How. 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  147 

Joseph  Higbee  died  in  1796,  at  the  age  of  seventy-six. 
Another  of  the  name  died  December  12,  1829,  in  his  sixty- 
fifth  year. 

MerseillES  is  a  French  family  which  has  had  its  repre- 
sentatives with  us  for  a  century.  Peter  Merselhs' — as  the 
name  is  on  his  grave — died  June  25,  1764,  aet.  forty-three. 
He  was  a  carpenter.  His  wife  was  Hannah,  and  he  had  a 
son  Edin,  Eden,  Edon,  Edow  or  Edo,  according  to  the  whim 
of  the  scrivener  or  copyist^^ — perhaps,  after  all,  a  French 
termination  attempted  in  English,  like  Eudang  and  Udang 
for  Houdin,  the  rector  of  St.  Michael's.^  ^  Edin  or  Edo 
Merseilles'  will  was  proved  in  April,  1800;  he  was  then 
residing  in  Prekness,  Bergen  county,  and  his  wife's  name 
is  given  as  Aurenche  and  Arreanche.  He  left  sons  Peter, 
Edo,  Cornelius,  John  and  Garret.  His  sisters  were  Rachel, 
Mary  and  Elizabeth.  His  daughters,  Anna,  Caty,  Arre- 
anche and  Jenny,  a  grandson,  Adrian  Van  Houten.  An 
Eden  Merseilles,  merchant,  died  at  Bridgeton,  January  13, 
1808,  in  his  forty-ninth  year.  "He  had  been  in  business 
longer  than  any  other  person  in  town."  Henry  Marselis 
was  a  brewer  in  Trenton  until  his  death,  in  1753.  His  will 
mentions  a  sister  Catherine,  and  brothers  Peter  and  John. 
There  was  a  John  Mersclous,  of  Hopewell,  whose  will,  in 
1784,  requires  that  fifteen  geese  should  be  kept  on  the  farm 
to  supply  feathers  for  the  beds  which  he  bequeathed  to  his 
daughters.    He  had  a  son,  John  Holder. 

Isaac  Smith  was  at  first  a  physician,  and  perhaps  never 
wholly  relinquished  the  profession ;  but  at  a  time  when  the 
constitution  of  the  highest  judiciary  department  of  the  State 
allowed  of  lay- judges,  Mr.  Smith  was  placed  on  the  Su- 
preme Court  bench  (February  15,  1777).  Hence,  when  he 
was  elected  a  trustee  of  the  congregation,  March  12,  1788, 
his  name  is  entered  as  "Doctor  Isaac  Smith,  Esquire."  His 
titles  might  have  been  extended,  for  he  was  Colonel-Com- 
mandant of  the  militia  in  the  neighborhood  of  Trenton  in 


148  HISTORY   OF   THE 

the  campaign  of  1776.  He  was  the  first  President  of  the 
Trenton  Banking  Company,  having  been  elected  to  that 
post  on  the  institution  of  the  bank,  February  13,  1805,  and 
continued  in  it  until  his  death.  He  served  eighteen  years  on 
the  bench,  "during  v^hich  time,"  according  to  his  obituary, 
"he  was  also  elected  by  the  suffrages  of  the  people  of  New 
Jersey,  at  a  general  State  election,  to  the  honorable  station 
of  a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the  United 
States,  where  his  high  character  for  political  wisdom  and 
tried  integrity  was  known  and  duly  appreciated  by  all  his  co- 
patriots,  and  particularly  by  the  illustrious  Washington  and 
Adams,  with  whom  he  enjoyed  the  intimacy  of  particular 
friendship."     His  epitaph  is  : 

"Isaac  Smith,  Esq.,  died  August  29th,  1807,  in  the  sixty-eighth  year 
of  his  age.  With  integrity  and  honest  intentions,  as  a  physician  and  a 
judge,  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  he  distributed  health  and  justice  to 
his  fellow-men,  and  died  in  hopes  of  mercy  through  a  Redeemer."^^ 

Of  his  wife,  whoi  died  in  1801,  the  comprehensive  char- 
acter is  graven  on  an  adjoining  stone: 

"She  was  what  a  woman  ought  to  be." 

It  appears  by  other  inscriptions  that  three  sons  preceded 
their  parents  to  the  grave:  Edward,  lost  at  sea,  in  1791,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-five;  John  Pennington,  in  1797;  and 
Charles,  Lieutenant  of  the  first  United  States  Regiment,  in 
1800,  aged  thirty-two.  O'ne  of  the  bequests  of  Dr.  Smith's 
will  was  as  follows :  "To  the  Trustees  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  the  city  of  Trenton,  one  hundred  dollars,  with 
the  interest  that  may  arise  thereon,  to  be  applied  towards 
building  a  new  church;  and  provided,  also,  that  they  keep 
the  tombstones  of  myself  and  family  in  good  repair.  I 
have  no  descendants  to  perform  this  duty."  His  executors 
were  Lydia  Imlay,  of  Trienton,  Richard  Stockton,  of 
Princeton,  and  Edward  Pennington,  of  Philadelphia. 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  149 

Samuel  BelIvERJEau^^  was  a  nephew  of  Samuel  Tucker. 
His  wife  was  Achsah;  daughters,  Hannah  Gee  and  Sarah 
Brearley;  sons,  Henry,  Benjamin,  John,  Samuel,  Thomas, 
and  Daniel.  He  died  July  8,  1795,  at  the  age  of  fifty-six, 
and  his  gravestone  is  one  of  those  that  pave  the  portico  O'f 
the  present  church. 

GoDEREY  WiMER.  I  find  no  more  than  that  a  person  of 
this  name  died  in  Nottingham  township,  June  5,  1801.^^ 

Beee.  The  only  traces  of  this  family  are  in  the  church- 
yard: Jam^es  BelP^  (probably  the  signer  oi  Mr.  Cowell's 
call),  September  10,  1747;  age,  seventy.  John  Bell,  No- 
vember 10,  1788;    age,  forty-six. 

Von  or  Van  Veghten  and  VeghTE  occur  frequently  in 
the  Dutch  churches  of  Somerset  county,  as  commemorated 
in  the  "Pastor's  M'emorial"  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Messier,  of 
Somerville  (1853). 

WooLSEY  has  long  been  a  highly  respectable  family  in 
the  township  and  town.  Benjamin  was  elected  elder  in 
1797,  but  declined.  Dr.  Jeremiah  Woolsey,  "formerly  of 
Trenton,"  died  in  Cincinnati,  February  9,  1834,  in  his 
sixty-fifth  year. 

Mathis,  sometimes  Mathias,  and  probably  also  Mathews. 
The  house  of  Captain  James  Mathis,  deceased,  at  Lamr 
berton,  was  advertised  for  sale  in  1796. 

William  Pidgeon,  already  named  in  the  notice  of  Mr. 
Cottnam,  died  at  Stafford,  Monmouth  county,  January  5, 
1780.  Elizabeth  Cottnam  appears  in  his  will,  among  his 
relatives.  He  left  fifty  pounds  to  the  Methodist  Society  of 
Trenton,  "for  the  repair  of  their  meeting-house."  He  also 
put  three  thousand  pounds  at  the  discretionary  disposal  of 
his  executors,  for  charitable  purposes,  and  "f^r  the  relief  of 
my  negroes  as  they  may  merit  it."  To  the  registration  of 
his  will  is  appended  this  paragraph :  "Note,  that  the  within- 
named  William  Pidgeon  was  so  burnt  by  getting  out  of  his 
house  when  on  fire,  that  he  could  not  hold  a  pen  to  write 


ISO  HISTORY   OF  THE 

his  name,  but  a  mark  as  above,  and  escaped  in  his  shirt." 
From  the  testimony  before  the  Surrogate,  and  from  the 
newspapers,  it  appears  that  two'  children  of  Captain  Isaac 
Andrews,  two  men-servants,  and  a  hired  man,  were  burnt 
to  death  at  this  time,  and  that  the  fire  was  the  cause  of 
the  fatal  illness  of  Pidg'eon"  himself. 

George  Creed  was  a  physician.  He  removed  to  New 
Jersey  from  Jamaica,  Long  Island,  of  which  town  William 
Creed  was  one  of  the  patentees  in  1686.  Dr.  Creed  was 
born  in  Jamaica,  October  i,  1735,  and  resided  for  some 
time  in  Flemington,  before  coming  to  Trenton.  He 
married  Susanna  Coleman,  of  Maidenhead,  in  1762,  who 
died  in  Trenton,  September  24,  1835,  in  her  ninety- fourth 
year.  Dr.  Creed  died  suddenly,  of  apoplexy,  on  a  visit  to 
Jamaica,  about  the  year  1775.  His  daughter,  Mrs.  Rebecca 
Creed  Ryall,  still  survives  (1859),  in  the  ninety-first  year 
of  her  age,  having  been  a  communicant  of  our  church  for 
about  sixty-three  years. ^*^ 

Robert  Lettis  Hooper.^ ''^  The  first  person  of  this  name 
was  Chief  Justice  of  the  Province  from  1724  to  1728,  and 
again  from  1729  till  his  death  in  1739.  In  an  advertisement 
of  February  18,  1752,  occurs  the  name  of  "Robert  Lettis 
Hooper,  now  living  at  Trenton;"  and  that  of  his  son, 
Reynald,  is  in  the  lottery  prospectus  of  1753,  copied  in  our 
Sixth  Chapter.  Robert  L.  Hooper,  Jr.,  had  a  store  in 
Philadelphia,  in  December,  1762;  was  Deputy  Quarter- 
master-General in  1778,  and  was  a  Judge  of  the  Common 
Pleas  of  Hunterdon  in  1784.  Robert  Lettis  Hooper  died 
April  25,  1785,  in  his  seventy-seventh  year,  and  was  buried 
in  the  Episcopal  ground  in  Trenton.  In  August,  of  the 
same  year,  the  death  of  a  stranger  (Ebenezer  Erskine)  is 
announced  "at  the  seat  of  Robert  Lettis  Hooper,  near 
Trenton,"  and  Mr.  Hooper  was  one  of  his  acting  executors. 
A  paper  of  November  7,  1785,  says:  "Since  our  last  the 
Hon.  Robert  Lettis  Hooper,  Esq.,  has  been  elected  Vice- 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  151 

President  of  the  Legislative  council,  in  the  room  of  John 
Cleves  Symmes,  appointed  to  Congress."  In  1796,  "Died, 
at  Belville,  near  Trenton,  Mrs.  Elizabeth,  wife  of  Robert 
L.  Hooper,  Esq."  July  30,  1797,  died  "the  Hon.  Robert 
Lettice  [so  spelled  sometimes]  Hooper,  formerly  Vice- 
President  of  this  State,  in  his  sixty-seventh  year."  Soon 
afterwards  is  advertised  for  sale  "that  elegant  seat  called 
Belville,  late  the  residence  of  R.  L.  Hooper,"  on  the  Dela- 
ware, and  containing  one  hundred  acres.  Belville  was  the 
Sinclair  and  Rutherford  country-seat  already  mentioned. 
It  is  advertised  in  September,  1806,  by  John  Rutherford, 
as  "the  summer  residence  of  the  subscriber  in  the  city  of 
Trenton,"  having  three  hundred  and  thirty  acres  on  both 
sides  of  the  river,  and  one  of  the  lots  between  the  new 
street  and  Colhoun's  lane,  including  "Prospect  Hill."  Tliis 
exhausts  my  memoranda  of  this  name  in  the  list  of  the 
contributors  to  Mr.  Spencer's  salary. 

Robert  Singer^ ^  was  at  one  time  connected  in  mer- 
chandise with  Bernard  Hanlon,  and  at  another  in  the 
auction  business  with  Francis  Witt.  Witt  kept  a  public 
house;  at  one  time  "the  Blazing  Star,"  at  another,  "an 
ordinary  at  the  sign  of  Dr.  Franklin,  near  the  market." 
The  Trustees  sometimes  held  their  meetings  at  his  inn.^^ 

John  Clunn  lived  in  Lamberton.  In  August,  1781,  the 
Gazette  mentions  the  death  of  the  widow  of  John  Clunn. 
aged  eighty-three,  "and  in  the  evening  of  the  same  day, 
the  weather  being  very  warm,  her  remains  were  interred 
in  the  (Episcopal)  church  burying-place."-^ 

Joseph  Ceunn^^  appears  in  the  Revolution  as  "Captain 
in  the  State  Regiment."  In  1785  "Captain  Clunn"  kept  an 
inn  which  bore  the  sign  of  Alexander  the  Great.  In  the 
Episcopal  ground  are  the  graves  of  Joseph  Clunn,  Sen., 
who  died  in  1798,  aged  fifty-nine;  and  of  John  H.  Clunn, 
1798,  aged  twenty-eight.  In  the  Presbyterian  ground  is 
the  grave  of  Amey  Clunn,  December  12,  1834;  aged 
seventy-six. 


152  HISTORY   OF   THE 

John  Fitch  is  one  of  the  historical  names  of  America, 
in  connection  with  the  invention  or  introduction  of  naviga- 
tion by  steam.  He  was  a  native  of  Connecticut,  where  his 
father  was  "a  most  strenuous  Presbyterian."  In  May, 
1769,  he  came  to  Trenton,  and  Matthew  Clunn,  a  tinman, 
employed  him  in  the  manufacture  of  brass  buttons.  He 
also  picked  up  some  knowledge  of  the  watchmaker's  trade. 
Clunn's  next  door  neighbor  was  James  Wilson,  a  silver- 
smith, who  employed  Fitch  as  a  sort  of  apprentice ;  but  in  a 
short  course  of  time  Wilson  failed,  and  became  Fitch's 
journeyman.    One  of  his  biographers  says  : 

"His  skill  and  perseverance  soon  enabled  him  to  master  the  diffi- 
culties of  his  calling,  and  money  began  to  flow  into  his  pockets.  When 
the  war  of  the  American  Revolution  commenced,  he  was  well  estab- 
lished, doing  an  extensive  business.  The  faculty  of  acquiring  property 
appears  to  have  been  in  him  as  strong  as  his  disposition  to  spend  it 
when  acquired.  His  shop  and  its  contents  were  estimated  at  three 
thousand  dollars  when  the  British  army  entered  the  village  of  Tren- 
ton. The  troops  were  attracted  to  it,  because  he  had  large  contracts 
for  the  repair  of  American  arms.  They  proceeded  to  burn  the  estab- 
lishment, and  destroy  the  tools  and  all  his  visible  property." 

When  the  first  military  company  was  formed  at  Trenton, 
in  support  of  the  Revolution,  Fitch  was  one  of  the  lieuten- 
ants, and  had  that  rank  in  the  cantonment  at  Valley  Forge. 
The  Committee  of  Safety  afterwards  made  him  their  gun- 
smith, or  armorer,  and  he  was  expelled  from  the  "Method- 
ist Society"  for  working  at  that  business  on  the  Sabbath. 
He  had  a  quarrel  with  Alexander  Chambers,  in  the  Com- 
missary department,  and  with  John  Yard,  about  military 
rank.  When  the  enemy  entered  Trenton,  in  December, 
1776,  Fitch  removed  to  Bucks  county.  He  attended  the 
Presbyterian  church  of  Neshaminy,  of  which  the  Rev. 
Nathaniel  Irwin  was  for  many  years  the  minister,  and  who 
appears  to  have  taken  much  notice  of  his  ingenuiity.  It  was 
on  his  return  afoot  from  that  church,  lame  with  rheu- 
matism, that  the  passing  of  vehicles  caused  him  to  feel  the 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  153 

contrast  with  his  own  difficult  locomotion,  and  suggested 
the  idea  of  "gaining  a  force  by  steam,"  that  would  relieve 
pedestrians  of  their  disadvantage.^^  After  making  the 
first  draft  of  a  steam-power,  Mr.  Irwin  showed  him,  in 
"Martin's  Philosophy,"  that  the  steam  engine  had  been 
already  invented,  and  that  the  desideratum  was  to  apply  it 
to  navigation.  It  was  to  the  Neshaminy  pastor  that  Fitch 
addressed  his  autobiography,  which  was  deposited  under 
seal  in  the  Philadelphia  library,  with  injunctions  that  it  was 
not  to  be  opened  until  thirty  years  after  the  inventor's 
death.  Stacy  Potts  was  one  of  the  company  formed  to 
asssist  Fitch  in  his  experiments,  and  he,  with  Isaac  Smith, 
Robert  Pearson,  Jr.,  Samuel  Tucker,  Abraham  Hunt,  and 
Rensselaer  Williams,-"  John  and  Charles  Clunn,  and  others 
of  Trenton,  gave  their  names  to  the  application  to  the 
Legislature  of  1790,  which  obtained  for  him  fourteen  years' 
exclusive  privilege  on  this  side  of  the  Delaware.  His  boat 
Perseverance  made  several  trips  between  Philadelphia  and 
Trenton  in  that  year.^* 

Fitch  visited  the  Western  States,  and  was  for  some  time 
in  captivity  among  the  Indians.  In  Collins's  Trenton 
Gazette,  of  July,  1785,  is  the  following  advertisement: 

"John  Fitch  having  traversed  the  country  northwest  of  the  Ohio, 
in  the  several  capacities  of  a  captive,  a  surveyor,  and  a  traveller,  as 
the  result  of  his  labors  and  remarks  has  completed,  and  now  wishes  to 
sell,  a  new,  accurate  Map  of  that  country,  generally  distinguished  by 
the  Ten  New  States,  including  Kentucky,  which  opens  immense  sources 
of  wealth  and  advantageous  speculation  to  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  and  therefore  is  an  object  of  general  attention.  Having  per- 
formed the  engraving  and  printing  himself,  he  is  enabled  to  sell  at  the 
very  small  price  of  a  French  crown. 

"N.  B. — They  are  also  to  be  sold  by  Enos  Kelsey,  in  Princeton,  and 
by  the  printer  hereof." 

It  is  said  that  this  map,  projected  and  engraved  by  him- 
self, was  printed  also  by  him  in  a  Bucks  county  cider-press. 
In  May,  1785,  he  wrote  to  his  patron.  Potts,  from  Bucks, 


154  HISTORY   OF  THE 

that  his  map  is  so  far  formed  that  he  "shall  want  paper  for 
it  thirty  inches  by  twenty-three,  and  would  wish  to  see  you 
on  the  occasion,  but  am.  so  engaged  that  I  can  not  spare  the 
time  to  go  over  to  Trenton." 

In  November,  1785,  Fitch  gave  to  the  Governor  of  Vir- 
ginia (Patrick  Henry)  a  bond  for  three  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds,  "conditioned  for  exhibiting  his  steamboat"  on  the 
waters  of  that  State,  "when  he  receives  subscriptions  for 
one  thousand  of  his  maps,  at  6s.  Sd.  each." 

From  the  Methodists  and  Presbyterians,  Fitch  went  over 
to  the  Universalists.  One  of  his  biographers  says  he  was 
"a  drinking  man"  in  his  later  years,  "but  it  is  believed  he 
was  not  a  drunkard."  Another  says  he  was  "a  man  of  ex- 
tremely temperate  habits  for  that  time."  The  latter  writer 
attributes  his  death  to  "gradual  suicide"  by  the  use  of 
spirituous  liquors,  and  says  that  he  "foretold  the  length  of 
time  that  his  constitution  would  survive,  by  a  mathematical 
ratio  of  debility."*  But  the  version  of  the  other,  and  latest 
author,  is  that  being  ill,  he  purposely  made  one  dose  of 
twelve  opium  pills,  which  had  been  directed  to  be  taken  at 
intervals. t  He  died  at  Biardstown,  Kentucky,  in  1798. 
"Will  a  delay  of  half  a  century,"  asks  his  biographer  of 
1847,  "in  rendering  public  justice  tO'  the  watch-maker  and 
gunsmith  of  Trenton,  weaken  the  obligations  of  his  country- 
men to  admire  his  genius  ?" 

Jami;s  Wilson  was  probably  the  silversmith  mentioned 
in  the  preceding  article.  His  father  had  prospered  in  Perth 
Amboy;  and  Wilson,  having  some  patrimony,  neglected  his 
trade  and  became  intemperate.  It  was  upon  his  becoming 
involved  in  some  responsibility  in  Wilson's  business,  that 
Fitch  undertook  to  pay  the  debt,  by  taking  his  tools,  when 
the  master  and  journeyman  exchanged  places. 


*  Memoir  by  Charles  Whittlesey,  in  Sparks's  L,ibrary  of  American  Biography, 
\rol.  xvi.   1847. 

t  Life,  drawn  from  his  Autobiography  in  the  Philadelphia  Library,  by  Thomp- 
son Westcott,  1857. 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  i55 

'WiLiviAM  Smith  was  the  name  of  the  landlord  of  whom 
Fitch  hired  a  room  in  Trenton  where  he  carried  on  the 
manufacture  of  silver  and  brass  buttons  for  peddling.  The 
only  place  in  which  I  find  the  name  is  in  an  inscription  in 
the  g-rave-yard,  the  age  of  the  subject  of  which  is  rather  too 
young  for  a  subscriber  in  1770. 

"In  affectionate  remembrance,  from  a  bereft  consort  and  fatherless 
ofif spring  of  William  Smith,  who  died  April  nth,  1799,  aged  forty 
years." 

Joseph  Brittain  was  a  shoemaker,  and  a  man  of  prop- 
erty. He  was  the  principal  owner  of  the  lot  on  which  the 
State  House  is  built.  In  January,  1792,  he  conveyed  two 
and  a  quarter  acres  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  State  for 
the  nominal  price  of  five  shillings,  and  in  February,  of  the 
same  year,  three-quarters  of  an  acre  for  sixty-seven  pounds 
and  ten  shillings. ^^  Mr.  Brittain  was  a  member  of  this 
church  from  1809  to  181 3,  when  his  connection  ceased  in 
consequence  of  his  having  embraced  doctrines  too  much  at 
variance  with  those  of  our  communion  for  his  comfortable 
continuance. 

Samuel  Henry-*^  was  a  large  owner  of  real  estate  in 
Trenton  and  elsewhere.  He  devised  to  his  children  exten- 
sive tracts  in  Nottingham,  and  Trenton,  including  "the  old 
iron-works,"  and  in  Pennsylvania.  His  children  (men- 
tioned individually  as  son  or  daughter  of  "Mary  Ogilbee") 
were  George,  Samuel,  Frances,  and  Mary.  He  left  a  prop- 
erty in  Trenton  to  Mary  Yard,  daughter  of  William  Yard, 
on  condition  of  her  keeping  it  as  a  comfortable  home  for 
his  children  during  their  minority;  making  special  refer- 
ence to  the  vacations  of  his  sons  when  they  should  be  stu- 
dents at  Princeton  College.  Their  names,  however,  are  not 
on  the  Catalogue.  Mr.  Henry  had  a  brother  Alexander  in 
Ireland,  whose  son  Arthur  H.  is  prominent  as  the  first 
legatee  in  his  will,  but  is  disposed  of  with  five  shillings.    He 


156  HISTORY   OP  THE 

left  a  contingent  legacy  of  three  hundred  pounds  "to-  the 
Trustees  or  managers  of  the  Einglish  Church  in  Trenton, 
for  the  maintenance  and  support  of  an  orthodox  minister." 
In  the  yard  of  that  church  are  the  tombstones  of  Samuel 
Henry,  January  9,  1795,  twenty-four  years;  Samuel  Henry, 
May  10,  1784,  sixty-seven  years;  George  Henry,  October 
23,  1846,  seventy-six  years.  The  wives  of  George  Henry 
and  Aaron  D.  Woodruff,  Attorney-General,  were  sisters^ — 
Mary  and  Grace,  daughters  of  Thomas  Lowrey.^'^  There 
is  a  fourth  stone  in  the  group,  marked  Mrs.  Mary  Henry, 
January  23,  1804;  twenty-nine  years.  There  died  in 
Bloomsbury,  January  5,  1832,  "Katy  Willis,  a  native  of 
Africa,  aged  one  hundred  and  twelve  years.  She  was  for- 
merly a  domestic  in  the  family  of  Samuel  Henry,  Sen.,  of 
Trenton." 

Hugh  Run  yon,  or  Runyan,  built  one  of  the  few  good 
houses  now  standing  in  Lamberton,  lately  of  the  estate  of 
John  E.  Smith,  probably  included  in  fifty  acres  in  Notting- 
ham township,  which  Runyon  conveyed  to  Elijah  Bond  in 
1777.  He  removed  to  Kingwood,  and  died  there.  I  have 
seen  a  deed  of  1799,  in  which  he  conveyed  land  to  his  son, 
Daniel  C.  Runyon,  of  Nottingham. 

Ste;phEn  LowrEy  married  Sarah,  daughter  of  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Spencer.  He  had  been  a  merchant  in  Maryland,  but 
after  his  marriage  in  Trenton  resided  there,  and  for  some 
time,  at  least,  at  the  parsonage ;  as  there  are  advertisements 
of  "Stephen  Lowrey,  at  the  Rev.  Mr.  Spencer's,"  offering 
"the  highest  price  for  loan  office  bills  on  the  Commissioners 
in  France."  He  appears  also  to  have  been  connected  with 
the  Commissariat  Department  in  the  Revolution;  as  in 
November,  1779,  he  offered  a  reward  of  a  thousand  dol- 
lars (Continental  currency)  for  nine  barrels  of  flour  stolen 
from  "the  Continental  store-house  at  Trenton."  Mrs. 
Lowrey's  grave  is  next  to  that  of  her  father.    Elsewhere  in 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  157 

the  church-yard  is  a  stone  marked  Thomas  Lowery,  Jr., 
March  11,  1803;   age,  thirty-one. 

Of  this  sort  was  the  congregation  to  which  Mr.  Spencer 
came  to  minister.  At  a  time  when  neither  the  Episcopalians 
nor  Presbyterians  were  strong  enough  to  maintain  pastors 
for  the  exclusive  service  of  their  town  churches,  a  number 
were  accustomed  to  hold  pews  in  both,  that  they  might  have 
the  opportunity  of  worship  in  one  or  the  other  place  every 
Lord's  day.  There  seems  to  have  been  no  difficulty  even 
in  holding  offices  alternately  in  both.  Of  the  subscribers 
to  the  agreement  when  Mr.  Spencer  was  called,  the  names 
of  Pidgeon,  Bond,  Coxe,  Hooper,  Cottnam,  How,  Decow, 
Singer,  Witt,  Clunn  and  Adams  are  to  be  found  among  the 
Wardens  and  Vestrymen  of  St.  Michael's  between  1755  and 
1783.  From  July  7,  1776,  to  January  4,  1783.  that  church 
was  not  opened  at  all  for  divine  services.^® 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

Dr.  Spencer's  Ministry — Revolutionary 
Incidents  in  Trenton. 

1773—1780- 

In  the  year  1773  there  appears  to  have  been  a  rearrange- 
ment of  the  pew-holding,  probably  in  consequence  of  some 
addition  to  the  number  of  pews.  A  meeting  of  the  congre- 
gation took  place  on  the  seventeenth  of  May,  "for  regulat- 
ing and  granting  seats  and  pew^s  in  the  meeting-house." 
Certain  pews- — from  one  to  twenty-four — are  directed  to 
be  "numbered,"  and  they  are  "rated,"  from  £1  los.  in  the 
gallery,  to  £3  los.  below.     It  was  ordered  that 

"Every  person,  or  persons,  entitled  to  a  pew  by  original  purchase  or 
grant,  be  continued  in  their  right,  on  his  or  their  paying  their  annual 
subscription  or  rate,  in  proportion  to  the  size  of  the  pew  such  person 
may  possess ;  not  under  forty  shillings,  nor  exceeding  three  pounds 
ten  shillings."  "William  Patterson  made  application  for  one-half  of 
any  pew  below  stairs.''  "James  Peak  applied  for  one-half  of  Mr. 
Pidgeon's  pew  in  the  gallery ;  in  case  Mr.  Pidgeon  should  give  it  up, 
he  would  give  fifteen  shillings  per  annum  for  the  half." 

There  is  no  record  to  show  when,  if  at  all,  Mr.  Spencer 
was  installed  in  Trenton.  At  his  reception  by  the  Presby- 
tery, in  1 77 1,  it  was  without  the  mention  of  any  particular 
charg'e.  One  cause  that  prevented  this  may  have  been  the 
confusion  and  uncertainty  arising  out  of  the  state  of  public 
affairs  in  colonies  approaching  a  revolution.  His  patriotic 
spirit  may  have  forethought  that  he  should  be  called,  if  not 
like  his  co- Presbyter,  Witherspoon,  tO'  the  public  councils, 
yet  to  a  return  to  his  chaplaincy  in  the  army.    In  1775  such 

(159) 


i6o  HISTORY   OF   THE 

an  opportunity  of  serving  both  his  country  and  Church 
was  presented,  and  it  originated  in  the  impressions  made 
during  his  missionary  visit  to  North  Carolina.^  In  Decem- 
ber of  that  year  a  special  meeting  of  the  Presbytery  was 
summoned  at  Princeton,  to  hear  an  application  from  him. 
He  then  stated  that  in  consequence  of  a  resolution  of  Con- 
gress, he  had  been  invited  by  the  delegates  of  North  Caro- 
lina to  take  a  journey  thither,  "and  preach  and  converse  for 
some  time  among  those  people,  as  their  case  is  extremely 
critical."  Dr.  Witherspoon  was  Moderator  of  the  meeting; 
and  the  minute  is  that  "the  Presbytery  most  cheerfully 
acquiesce  with  the  motion,  and  appoint  Mr.  Spencer  to 
comply  with  the  request;  and  appoint  supplies  for  his  sev- 
eral congregations  during  his  absence ;  and  ordered  that 
the  Moderator  furnish  Mr.  Spencer  with  proper  testimoni- 
als to  the  churches  of  Christ  in  North  Carolina." 

In  the  Journal  of  the  Continental  Congress,  of  December 
20,  1775,  is  this  minute: 

"Resolved,  That  orders  be  drawn  on  the  Treasurers,  in  favor  of  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Elihu  Spencer  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Alexander  Macwhorter, 
who  have  undertaken  to  go  to  North  Carolina,  for  the  sum  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty  dollars  each,  being  three  months'  advance,  they 
to  be  accountable." 

The  late  Mrs.  Biddle,  of  Carlisle,  Pennsylvania,  a  daugh- 
ter of  Dr.  Spencer,  who  survived  him  until  1858,  gave  to 
me  in  1841  the  following  memorandum^  of  this  mission: 

"In  the  beginning  of  the  Revolutionary  contest  my  father  and  Dr. 
Macwhorter,  of  Newark,  were  appointed  by  Congress  to  visit  the 
more  remote  parts  of  Virginia,  Georgia,  North  and  South  Carolina,  for 
the  purpose  of  informing  the  settlers  there,  who  were  at  the  time 
exceedingly  ignorant,  of  the  cause  of  the  Revolution  and  the  necessity 
of  standing  forth  in  defense  of  their  right  and  country.  This  circum- 
stance made  my  father  very  obnoxious  to  the  British,  who  suffered 
his  library  with  all  the  writings  of  his  whole  life  to  be  burnt  and 
entirely  destroyed." 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  i6i 

A  daughter  oi  Mrs.  Biddle  has  since  written  to  me  that 
she  has  frequently  heard  her  mother  relate  the  incidents  of 
that  period,  and  their  serious  consequences  to  the  zealous 
advocate  oi  Independence,  after  his  return  to  Trenton., 
which  was  soon  in  the  centre  of  warfare.  His  interference 
was  considered  rebellion,  and  the  authorities  of  the  royal 
govemmjent  offered  a  reward  of  a  hundred  guineas  for  his 
head. 

"This  was  known,"  says  my  correspondent,  "to  the  American  officers, 
and  one  of  them  (I  think  General  Mercer)  sent  a  messenger  to  him 
in  the  night  to  say  that  the  British  army  were  near,  and  that  he  must 
fly  for  his  life.  My  mother  was  about  nine  years  old,  and  recollects 
perfectly  the  panic  and  flight  in  the  middle  of  the  night.  They  went 
to  St.  George's,  in  Delaware,  where  they  were  treated  with  the  utmost 
kindness  and  affection.  My  grandfather  preached  there  until  it  was 
safe  to  return  to  Trenton.  On  the  return  of  the  family  they  found 
their  furniture,  books,  and  papers  destroyed,  and  the  house  itself  so 
much  injured  that  it  was  scarcely  habitable.  My  mother  has  often 
told  me  that  her  father  was  so  discouraged  by  the  loss  of  his  papers, 
that  from  that  time  he  never  wrote  another  sermon ;  preaching  merely 
from  short  notes."^ 

In  1 78 1  the  Legislature  of  N'ew  Jersey  appointed  Com- 
missioners to'  "procure  an  estimate  of  the  damages  sus- 
tained by  the  inhabitants  of  this  State  from  the  waste  and 
spoil  committed  by  the  troops  in  the  service  of  the  enemy, 
or  their  adherents."  Peter  Gordon,  Sidney  Berry,  and 
Joseph  Phillips  were  the  Commissioners  for  Hunterdon 
county.  From  their  report  we  can  ascertain  minutely  the 
loss  suffered  by  Dr.  Spencer,  and  also  that  of  the  Church 
corporation.  In  the  return  of  the  former  are  given,  "five 
hundred  and  twenty-four  panel  fence,  four  rails  with  post ;" 
"one  hundred  and  sixty-seven  panel  of  red  cedar  post  and 
rail-fence,  good  as  new ;"  agricultural  implements,  wheat  in 
the  stalk  and  in  the  ground,  cattle,  furniture,  maps,  clothing, 
china,  glass,  three  spinning-wheels,  provisions ;  "stable 
totally  destroyed."     To  this  inventory  Dr.  Spencer  adds  : 

II    PRES 


i62  HISTORY   OF  THE 

"A  large  chest  and  barrel  of  books,  packed  close,  but  the  particular 
volumes  I  can  not  remember  or  fully  recollect.  Among  them  were  all 
the  school-books  and  classics  in  Greek  and  Latin ;  a  large  collection  of 
Hebrew  books,  French  dictionary,  grammar,  and  Bible,  and  several 
other  books  in  French ;  Pool's  Annotations  on  the  Bible,  Bates'  Works 
in  large  folio,  Wiilard's  Works,  with  his  Body  of  Divinity;  six  large 
volumes  of  Caryl  upon  Job ;  Pope's,  Swift's,  and  Addison's  Works ; 
Mr.  Edwards's  Works,  of  Northampton,  with  a  number  of  mathe- 
matical and  philosophical  books ;  Dr.  Witherspoon's  Works,  a  good 
many  of  Wall's  Works,  several  volumes  of  Doddridge's  Works,  be- 
sides his  Family  Expositor,  and  a  great  number  of  volumes  on  different 
subjects,  which  I  can  not  recollect.  The  estimate  of  these  books  I 
leave  to  the  discretion  of  the  Commissioners,  not  being  able  to  give  a 
more  particular  account,  but  beg  leave  to  say,  I  have  always  estimated 
the  loss  of  the  library  to  be  one  hundred  pounds  at  the  least." 

His  affidavit  was  made  September  6,  1783.  Putting 
the  books  at  eighty  pounds,  the  total  of  the  Commissioners' 
appraisement  was  £387  lys.  gd. 

The  parsonage  was  used  by  the  Hessians  for  an  hospital. 
The  communion  plate  was  plundered.  The  particulars  of 
the  loss  sustained  are  given  as  follows : 

"An  inventory  of  damages  done  to  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Tren- 
ton, and  public  property  destroyed  by  the  enemy  in  December,  1776: 

"303  feet  of  board  fence  three  feet  high,  45  round  posts  and 

rails,  which  was  round  the  burying-ground,    £6  00 

1 1  panel  post  and  4  rail  fence,  i  20 

140  panes  glass,    4  i  8 

Large  gates,  hooks,  and  hinges,   i  10  o 

A  silk  damask  curtain  and  hangings,   12  00 

A  silver  can  with  two  handles,  and  large  plate,   20  00 

Damages  done  to  the  parsonage  house  whilst  an  Hessian  hos- 
pital,  (app'd  by  Miss  Axford,) 19  50 

1400  feet  of  boards  stript  off  the  stable,  5  50 

310  feet  board  fence,  five  feet  high,  40  posts  and  rails,  round 

the  parsonage  garden,    6  164 

2  large  front  gates,  hooks,  and  hinges,  i  00 

I  well-curb,  bucket,  and  chain,   i  10  0 

I  table-cloth  and  about  ten  yards  diaper, 2  00 

£80  10  o 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  163 

"Alexander  Chambers  being  duly  sworn,  deposes  and  says,  that  the 
within  inventory  is  just  and  true,  to  the  best  of  his  knowledge,  and  that 
no  pay  or  compensation  hath  been  received  for  the  same  or  any  part 
thereof. 

"In  behalf  of  the  congregation, 

"Alexander  Chambers,  Trustee." 

"Sworn  this  seventh  day  of  September,  1782. 

"Jos.  Phillips." 

On  the  second  January,  1777,  Cornwallis  entered  Tren- 
ton. One  of  the  members  of  our  Presbytery  was  a  victim 
to  the  barbarity  of  the  troops  under  his  command.  This 
was  the  Rev.  John  RosborO'Ugh,  pastor  of  Allentown,  Penn- 
sylvania, who  was  received  as  a  candidate  May  22d,  1762; 
licensed  a  probationer,  August  16,  1763,  and  ordained 
December  11,  1764.  He  was  Moderator  of  the  Presby- 
tery in  1776.  According  to  the  report  made  to  Synod,  he 
was  "barbarously  murdered  by  the  enemy  at  Trenton  on 
January  second."  In  a  letter  to  Richard  Henry  Lee,  of 
January  14,  Dr.  Rush  wrote:  "The  savages  [Hessians] 
murdered  a  clergyman,  a  chaplain  to  a  battalion  of  militia, 
in  cold  blood,  at  Trenton,  after  he  had  surrendered  himself 
and  begged  for  mercy.  His  name  was  Rosborough."*  It 
ought,  however,  to  be  mentioned  that  before  he  was  com- 
missioned as  chaplain,  Mr.  Rosborough  had  united  with  his 
neighbors  in  forming  a  company  to  recruit  Washington's 
forces  on  their  retreat  through  New  Jersey,  and  from  a 
sentence  in  a  letter  to  his  wife,  a  few  days  before  his  cap^ 
ture,  it  seems  probable  that  he  was  even  then  "riding  with 
a  French  fusee  slung  at  his  back."^ 

The  particulars  O'f  the  outrage  are  given  by  Dr.  Sprague 
as  follows: 

"Mr.  Rosborough  proceeded  with  his  company  to  Trenton ;  and,  as 
he  was  going  towards  the  river  in  search  of  his  horse,  he  was  met  by 
a  company  of  Hessians  under  British  command.  He  immediately  gave 
himself  up  as  a  prisoner,  but  begged,  for  the  sake  of  his  wife  and  chil- 


Memoirs   of   R.   H.   L,ee,   voL   ii.    163. 


i64  HISTORY   OF  THE 

dren,  that  they  would  spare  his  life.  He  quickly  found,  however,  that 
his  request  was  to  be  denied,  and  that  the  bloody  deed  was  to  be  per- 
formed without  delay.  He  instantly  knelt  down,  and,  in  imitation  of 
his  blessed  Master,  prayed  for  the  forgiveness  of  his  murderers,  and 
scarcely  had  this  prayer  passed  from  his  lips  before  a  deadly  weapon 
pierced  his  body,  and  he  lay  struggling  in  death.  They  then  took  his 
watch,  and  part  of  his  clothing,  and  left  him  weltering  in  his  blood. 
The  wretched  creature  who  had  committed  the  act,  or  had  had  a  prin- 
cipal part  in  it,  went  immediately  after,  with  the  fury  of  a  madman, 
into  one  of  the  hotels  in  Trenton,  and  profanely  boasted  to  the  woman 
who  kept  it,  that  he  had  killed  a  rebel  minister,  and  showed  her  his 
watch ;  but  he  added  that  it  was  too  bad  he  should  have  been  praying 
for  them  when  they  were  murdering  him.  A  young  man  by  the  name 
of  John  Hayes,  of  Mr.  Rosborough's  congregation,  took  charge  of  the 
corpse,  and  buried  it  the  next  day  in  an  obscure  place  in  Trenton. 
The  Rev.  George  Duffield,  of  Philadelphia,  having  heard  of  the  sad 
event,  took  measures  to  have  the  body  removed  to  the  churchyard  for 
its  final  interment."* 

Mr.  (afterwards  Dr.)  Duffield,  mentioned  in  this  extract, 
was  one  of  the  chaplains  of  the  First  Congress.  He  would 
occasionally  leave  his  congregation  for  a  short  time  tO'  serve 
as  a  missionary  to^  the  troops  when  they  were  within  easy 
reach.  It  was  probably  during  such  an  errand  as  this  that 
he  became  acquainted  with  Mr.  Rosborough's  death;  for, 
according  to  the  annalist  just  quoted: 

"He  was  with  the  army  in  their  battles  and  retreat  through  Jersey, 
and  was  almost  the  very  last  man  that  crossed  the  bridge  over  the 
stream  immediately  south  of  Trenton,  before  it  was  cut  down  by  order 
of  the  American  General.  For  this  preservation  he  was  indebted  to  a 
Quaker  friend,  whom  he  had  essentially  aided  in  his  hour  of  trial— 
though  of  politics  opposed  to  his  own — and  whose  deliverance  he  had 
been  the  means  of  securing.  The  British  officers  had  put  a  price 
upon  his  head,  and  were  particularly  anxious  to  destroy  him,  because 
of  the  influence  he  exerted  among  the  soldiers  of  the  American  army. 
After  the  retreat  from  Princeton,  he  had  retired  to  a  private  house  in 
Trenton  to  seek  repose,  and  was  not  aware  that  the  American  army 
had  taken  up  their  line  of  march,  and  had  nearly  all  crossed  the 
bridge,  until  his  Quaker  friend  sought  him  out  and  gave  him  the 
alarm,  just  in  time  for  him  to  escape,  before  the  bridge  was  destroyed 
by  the  retreating  army  of  Washington."* 


*  Annals,   vol.   iii.   254.      I  am   sorry  to  say  that  there  is   no  trace  of  the  chap- 
lain's grave  in  our  grounds. 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  165 

From  the  blanks  in  the  minutes  of  the  Trustees,  it  ap- 
pears that  there  was  no  meeting  of  the  Board  in  1776.  In 
that  eventful  year  the  Presbytery  held  five  sessions :  at 
Bound  Brook  in  April,  at  Philadelphia  (during  Synod)  in 
May,  at  Princeton  in  June  (to  receive  Mr.  Armstrong  as  a 
candidate),  at  Amwell  in  July,  at  Basking  Ridge  in  Octo- 
ber. The  State  was  the  seat  of  war.  In  the  beginning  O'f 
December,  Washington  and  a  large  body  of  troops  were  at 
Trenton.  Later  in  the  month  a  brigade  of  three  Hessian 
regiments,  one  of  them  Colonel  Rahl's,  was  stationed  here. 
The  Colonel  kept  the  town  in  commiotio'n,  even  before  he 
thought  of  being  attacked. 

"The  cannon,"  said  one  of  his  lieutenants  in  his  journal,  "must  be 
drawn  forth  every  day  from  their  proper  places,  and  paraded  about  the 
town  seemingly  only  to  make  a  stir  and  uproar.  There  was  a  church 
[the  Episcopal]  close  by  his  quarters,  surrounded  by  palings ;  the  officer 
on  guard  must  march  round  and  round  it,  with  his  men  and  musicians, 
looking  like  a  Catholic  procession,  wanting  only  the  cross,  and  the 
banners,  and  chaunting  choristers.  The  hautboys — he  could  never  have 
enough  of  them."* 

On  the  twenty-sixth  was  the  famous  battle.  Rahl  was 
carried  mortally  wounded  to  his  quarters  in  Warren  street^ 
— the  residence  of  Stacy  Potts.® 

The  journal  of  his  Lieutenant,  as  translated  in  Mr.  Irv- 
ing's  work,  says : 

"He  died  on  the  following  evening,  and  lies  buried  in  this  place 
which  he  has  rendered  so  famous,  in  the  graveyard  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church.  Sleep  well !  dear  commander !  The  Americans  will 
hereafter  set  up  a  stone  above  thy  grave  with  this  inscription : 

"Hier  liegt  der  Oberst  Rahl, 
Mit  ihm  ist  alles  all!" 

"Here  lies  Colonel  Rahl;  all  is  over  with  him."  The 
Americans  have  delayed  the  fulfillment  of  the  prediction 
until  it  has  become  impossible  to  identify  the  "hier"  for 
the  epitaph. 


Irving's  L,ife  of  Washington,  ch.  xliii. 


i66  HISTORY   OF  THE 

The  first  mention  of  celebrating  the  anniversary  of  the 
battle  of  Trenton  which  I  have  found  is  in  1806,  December 
26,  when  the  Trenton  Light  Infantry  had  a  parade  and  a 
dinner,  and  in  the  evening  the  Rev.  Mr.  Stamford  preached 
in  the  Baptist  Church,  from  the  text,  "I  was  free-born." 
The  observance  afterwards  degenerated  intoi  an  annual 
sham-fight. 

Mr.  Spencer  was  present  at  the  election  of  Trustees  of 
the  congregation,  September  2,  1777,  "at  the  house  of  Mr. 
John  Chambers."  He  attended  the  sessions  of  Synod  and 
Presbytery  in  Philadelphia,  May,  1776,  and  of  Presbytery, 
at  Amiwell,  July  31,  on  which  day  he  presided  and  preached 
at  the  ordination  of  Mr.  Warford,  and  his  installment  over 
the  conigregation  of  Amwell.  In  April,  1782,  this  minute  is 
found : 

"The  Presb)rtery  thinks  it  proper  here  to  note  that  the  trouble 
occasioned  by  the  war  has  been  the  general  reason  why  the  members 
of  Presbytery  have  attended  with  so  little  punctuality  for  a  number 
of  years  past — this  State  having  been  either  the  seat  of  war,  or  con- 
tiguous to  it,   since  the  year  1776." 

To  the  ravages  of  war  is  probably  owing  the  order  of 
the  Trustees  in  August,  1780,  that  "a  subscription  be  opened 
in  town  and  country  for  repairing  the  parsonage  house, 
which  at  present  is  in  a  ruinous  condition."  A  committee 
of  1792,  to  search  for  missing  records,  reported  "that  none 
were  to  be  found,  and  that  there  is  much  reason  to  believe 
that  those  minutes  were  lost  during  the  late  Revolution 
among  the  papers  of  Dr.  Spencer  and  Mr.  Halsey."  And 
in  their  reply,  through  the  Rev.  Mr.  Armstrong,  to  the 
requisition  of  the  General  Assembly  for  historical  materials, 
the  Presbytery  of  April,  1793,  report:  "They  labor  under 
peculiar  difficulties,  in  this  respect,  from  the  extent  of  the 
ravages  of  the  enemy  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey  during 
the  late  war.  The  minutes  of  the  Presbytery  have  been 
lost  with  the  papers  of  the  late  Dr.  Spencer,  down  to  a  late 
date."    As  early  as  1779,  Mr.  Spencer  himself, 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  167 

"As  Standing  Clerk,  is  requested  to  collect  all  the  papers  belonging 
to  this  Presbytery,  from  the  several  members  or  others  in  whose 
hands  they  may  have  been  heretofore  deposited ;  to  be  complied  with 
by  our  next   Presbytery." 

Nine  years  after  Spencer's  death, 

"Mr.  Woodhull  informed  the  Presbytery  that  the  old  minutes,  [prior 
to  1771,]  so  long  searched  for  in  vain,  were  known  to  be  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Mr.  Warford,  of  the  Presbytery  of  Albany,  and  it  was  ordered 
that  Mr.  Woodhull  take  suitable  measures  to  procure  them,"  (Sep- 
tember  18,    1793). 

As  a  further  illustration  of  the  hazards  of  ecclesiastical 
records  of  the  times,  and  a  probable  explanation  of  the 
fate  of  many  documents  of  the  Trenton  congregation,  I 
produce  the  substance  of  an  affidavit  presented  to  the  New 
Jersey  Legislature,  in  February,  1777,  by  Samuel  Tucker, 
who  was  both  a  Trustee  and  Clerk  of  the  Board.  As 
Treasurer  of  the  State  he  had  a  large  amount  of  the  paper 
currency,  and  other  valuable  public  property  in  his  custody. 
Hearing  that  the  British  army,  under  Howe,  was  likely 
to  pass  through  Trenton,  he  removed  his  effects  to  the 
house  of  John  Abbott,  five  miles  off.  Howe  arrived  in 
Trenton  December  8,  1776,  and  next  day  Lieutenant-Col- 
onel Abercrombie  sent  Lieutenant  Hackshaw  with  a  detach- 
m'ent  to  Abbott's  under  the  guidance  of  one  Mary  Pointing, 
where  they  captured  Tucker's  property  and  carried  it  to 
New  Brunswick.  On  the  14th  of  December,  Tucker,  on 
his  way  to  Trenton,  was  met  near  Crosswicks  by  a  party 
of  horsemen,  who  took  him  prisoner,  and  detained  him  until 
a  protection  was  obtained  from  the  Hessian  Colonel  Rahl. 
He  lost  all  the  papers,  public  and  private,  which  were  thus 
removed.  This  statement  of  Tucker's  was  the  cause  of  a 
controversy  between  him  and  Governor  Livingston  (who 
wrote  under  the  signature  of  "Scipio")  in  the  Neiv  Jersey 
Gazette  of  1784. 

I  suppose  they  were  our  pastor  and  trustee  whose  names 
occur  in  the  diary  of  John  Adams,   September  19,   1777, 


i68  HISTORY   OF   THE 

when  Congress  were  withdrawing  from  Philadelphia  on 
the  approach  of  the  enemy.  He  says :  "We  rode  to  Tren- 
ton, where  we  dined.  Drank  tea  at  Mr.  Spencer's ;  lodged 
at  Mr.  S.  Tucker's,  at  his  kind  invitation." 

The  journal  of  the  next  day  may  have  its  local  interest 
for  some  of  my  readers : 

"20th.  Breakfasted  at  Mrs.  J.  B.  Smith's.  The  old  gentleman,  his 
son  Thomas,  the  loan  officer,  were  here,  and  Mrs.  Smith's  little  son 
and  two  daughters.  An  elegant  breakfast  we  had,  of  fine  Hyson, 
loaf-sugar,  and  coffee,  etc.  Dined  at  Williams's  the  sign  of  the  Green 
Tree;  drank  tea  with  Mr.  Thomson  [Charles  Thomson?]  and  his  lady 
at  Mrs.  Jackson's ;  walked  with  Mr.  Duane  to  General  Dickinson's 
house,  and  took  a  look  at  his  farm  and  gardens,  and  his  green-house, 
which  is  a  scene  of  desolation;  the  floor  of  the  green-house  is  dug 
up  by  the  Hessians  in  search  for  money.     Slept  again  at  Tucker's." 

Mr.  Adams's  first  sight  of  Trenton  was  in  August,  1774, 
when  his  diary  records: 

"Rode  to  Trenton  [from  Princeton,  where  he  heard  Dr.  Wither- 
spoon  preach]  to  breakfast.  At  Williams's,  the  tavern  at  Trenton  ferry, 
we  saw  four  very  large  black  walnut  trees,  standing  in  a  row  behind 
the  house.''  The  town  of  Trenton  is  a  pretty  village.  It  appears  to 
be  the  largest  town  we  have  seen  in  the  Jerseys.  We  then  crossed 
the  ferry  over  the  Delaware  river  to  the  province  of  Pennsylvania."* 

In  the  Presbytery  of  August,  1776,  a  singular  complaint 
was  presented  against  Mr.  Spencer,  arising  out  of  his  visit 
to  North  Carolina.  Mr,  John  Debow,  who  had  just  been 
called  to  Eno  and  Hawfields,  submitted  a  letter  from  the 
Presbytery  of  Orange,  in  North  Carolina,  complaining  that 
Mr.  Spencer  had  baptized  a  child  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Lisle,  a 
minister  from  Scotland,  who,  without  joining  the  Pres- 
bytery, was  preaching  in  some  of  their  vacant  congrega- 
tions and  gathering  a  new  parish  out  of  them.  The  minutes 
proceed  to  narrate  that: 

"After  diligent  inquiry  of  Mr.  Debow,  concerning  what  he  knew  of 
the  life  and  conversation  of  Mr.  Lisle,  and  having  received  all  the 
light  he  was  able  to  give  them,  the  Presbytery  judge  that  Mr.  Lisle 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  169 

hath  a  right  to  Church  privileges,  and  that  Mr.  Spencer,  in  baptizing 
his  child,  has  done  no  more  than  what  the  laws  of  charity  and  church- 
fellowship  required  of  him,  and  that  the  complaint  against  him  is 
without  foundation." 

The  States  were  divided  into  three  military  departments. 
The  middle  department  comprised  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
Pennsylvania,  the  lower  counties  on  the  Delaware  (now 
the  State  of  Delaware),  and  Maryland.  In  October,  1776, 
William  Shippen,  Jr.,  was  directed  to  provide  and  superin- 
tend an  hospital  for  the  army  in  New  Jersey,  and  on  OctO'- 
ber,  20,  1777, 

"Congress  proceeded  to  the  election  of  a  chaplain  for  the  hospital 
in  the  middle  department,  and  the  ballots  being  taken,  the  Rev.  Elihu 
Spencer  was  elected." 

In  May,  1 780,  Mr.  Spencer  was  afflicted  by  the  death  of 
his  daughter,  Mrs.  Sarah  Lowrey,  in  her  twenty-fifth  year. 
She  was  buried  from  her  father's  house.  She  was  one  of 
the  ladies  of  Trenton  who  sympathized  in  the  measures 
which  originated  in  Pennsylvania  for  the  relief  of  the 
suffering  troops  by  raising  contributions  to  add  to  their 
slender  wages.  Active  measures  were  taken  here  on  the 
fourth  of  July  of  that  year,  to  effect  this  object.  A  gen- 
eral committee  was  then  appointed,  composed  of  Mrs. 
Coxe,  Mrs.  Dickinson,  Mrs,  Furmian,  and  Miss  Cadwalader, 
and  another  committee  for  each  county.  That  for  Hunter- 
don consisted  of  "Mrs.  Vice-President  Stevens,  Mrs. 
Judge  Smith,  Mrs.  Charles  Coxe,  Mrs.  R.  Stevens,  Mrs. 
Hanna,  Mrs.  T.  Lowrey,  Mrs.  J.  Sexton,  Mrs.  B.  Vancleve, 
Mrs.  Colonel  Berry,  Mrs.  Doctor  Burnet."  Mrs.  Moore 
Furman  was  Treasurer,  and  Miss  Mary  Dagworthy,  Secre- 
tary. A  letter  is  preserved  in  Washington's  correspond- 
ence, from  Miss  Dagworthy,  dated  at  Trenton,  July  17, 
1780,  which  transmitted  to  the  Chief  the  sum  of  $15,488 — 
allowing  for  the  depreciated  currency,  actually  about  $390.* 


*  Sparks's  Writings  of  Washington,  vol.  vii.  90. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

CivOSe:  o?  Dr.  Spencer's  Ministry — His  Death. 

1780 — 1784. 

Tliroughout  the  years  of  Mr.  Spencer's  ministry  in 
Trenton  he  was  a  prominent  member  of  the  different 
church-courts,  and  often  served  as  Moderator,  Clerk, 
Treasurer,  and  Committee  man.  When  the  Synod  (1769) 
regarded  the  College  of  New  Jersey  so  much  of  a  church 
institution  as  to  divide  themselves  into  committees  for  col- 
lecting donations  from  all  parts  of  their  territory,  Mr. 
Spencer  and  Mr.  McDowell,  had  Chester  and  parts  of 
Lancaster  county,  in  Pennsylvania,  assigned  to  them.  In 
1770  and  the  five  consecutive  years  Spencer  was  a  delegate 
from  the  Synod  to  the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian 
Convention,  which  met  alternately  in  Connecticut  and  New 
Jersey.  He  was  frequently  called  to  take  part  in  collect- 
ing and  disbursing  the  Students'  Fund,  and  Widows'  Fund, 
and  was  an  official  visitor  of  Mr.  Brainerd's  Indian  School. 
In  the  absence  of  the  Moderator  he  opened  the  Synod  of 
1782  with  a  sermon.  His  name  then  appears  for  the  first 
time  with  the  title  of  Doctor  of  Divinity,  which  degree  was 
given  him  by  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  in  March, 
1782,  at  the  same  time  with  the  Rev.  William  White,  who 
was  afterwards  so  distinguished  as  a  Bishop  of  the  Protes- 
tant Episcopal  Church.^ 

In  1782  Dr.  Spencer  was  associated  with  Dr.  Wither- 
spoon  and  Joseph  Montgomery,  in  a  committee  "to  prepare 
an  address  to  the  Minister  of  France,  congratulating  him 
on  the  birth  of  a  Dauphin,  son  and  heir  to  the  crown  of  his 
royal  Master;    expressing  the  pleasure  the  Synod  feel  on 

(171) 


172  HISTORY   OF   THE 

this  happy  event. "^  The  last  office  assigned  to  him  by  the 
Synod  was  in  1784,  the  year  of  his  death,  when  he  was  made 
one  of  the  committee  of  conference  and  correspondence  with 
the  Synod  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church. 

There  being  extant  no  record  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
Session  during  Dr.  Spencer's  ministry,  nor  any  registry  of 
the  communicants  of  that  period,  it  is  not  in  my  power  to 
furnish  such  statistics  as  might  show  the  progress  of  the 
three  churches  in  those  relations.  The  minutes  of  the  Trus- 
tees have  been  preserved,  but  are  meager  in  their  details. 
The  following  persons  were  members  of  the  Board  during 
Dr.  Spencer's  incumbency : 

Charles  Clark,  Obadiah  Howell, 

Alexander  Chambers,  Daniel  Clark, 

Abraham  Hunt,  Joseph  Tindal, 

Joseph  Reed,  Jr.,  Nathaniel  Furman.^ 

Samuel  Tucker,  Moore  Furman. 

These  Trustees  served  for  the  country  and  town  congre- 
gations, but  not  for  Maidenhead.  Their  meetings  were  held 
in  town,  and  either  at  the  church  or  parsonage.  Mr.  Cham- 
bers was  uniformly  chosen  Treasurer,  Mr.  Tucker,  Clerk, 
and  Mr.  Spencer,  President,  until  May,  1783,  when  he  ceased 
to  be  a  Trustee,  and  Mr.  Chambers  was  both  President 
and  Treasurer.  The  proceedings  were  not  of  much  greater 
importance  than  to  build  "a.  shed  between  the  parsonage- 
house  and  the  stable,  out  of  the  six  pounds  rent  put  at  in- 
terest;" "to  repair  the  roof  of  the  stable,"  "to  rent  out  and 
agree  for  the  several  pews  that  at  this  time  are  vacant,  and 
get  the  two  long  seats  made  into  four  small  pews,  and  rent 
them  out  also ;"  to  order  "that  all  the  pews  shall  pay  the 
annual  assessment  as  they  may  be  stated — not  under  forty 
shillings  per  annum  the  smallest." 

The  heirs  of  Daniel  Howell  and  Joseph  Green  claimed  a 
right  to  the  pews  "built  by  their  ancestors,  without  being 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  173 

liable  tO'  pay  the  annual  assessment;"  on  this  question  the 
yeas  and  nays  were  called  at  two  different  meetings,  and 
both  times  the  claim  was  refused  by  the  casting  vote  of  the 
President.  The  salary  accounts  of  the  two  churches  were 
separate :  "Ordered,  that  the  Treasurer  do  pay  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Spencer  fifty-five  shillings  towards  the  deficiency  of 
his  salary  for  last  year  for  Trenton,  and  fifteen  shillings 
towards  the  salary  for  the  last  year  for  the  old  meeting- 
house." There  were  "collectors"  for  each  house. 
On  the  sixth  of  June,  1781,  it  was  resolved, 

"To  petition  the  Legislature  to  confirm  by  law  the  charter  granted 
by  Governor  Belcher ;  a  memorial  was  accordingly  drawn  and  signed 
by  the  President  and  all  the  Trustees.  The  President  being  desired, 
readily  agreed  to  wait  on  the  Legislature,  and  took  with  him  the 
original  charter  to  lay  before  them." 

On  the  twenty-fifth  March,  1782, 

"The  President  informed  the  Board  that  agreeably  to  the  order  of 
this  Board,  of  the  sixth  of  June,  1781,  he  waited  on  the  Legislature, 
and  took  with  him  the  original  charter,  which  he  has  since  returned 
to  the  Clerk,  which  was  laid  before  the  Board  this  day,  and  that  the 
Legislature  told  him  they  did  not  think  proper  to  take  the  same  into 
their  consideration  at  present." 

I  do  not  find  any  note  of  this  application  in  the  Journals 
of  either  branch  of  the  Legislature.  On  the  seventh  June, 
1 78 1,  an  act  incorporating  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Newark,  which  had  passed  the  Assembly,  was  brought 
into  the  Council,  and  after  a  second  reading,  was  postponed 
until  the  next  sitting;  immediately  after  which  it  was  "Or- 
dered that  Mr.  Frelinghuysen  and  Mr.  Caldwell  be  a  com- 
mittee to  prepare  and  bring  in  a  bill  upon  a  general  plan 
for  incorporating  religious  societies."  On  the  next  da}^  a 
petition  from  the  Baptist  Church  of  Pittsgrove,  Salem 
county,  was  read,  "praying  a  law  tO'  incorporate  them  as 
well  as  all  other  religious  societies,"  which  was  referred  to 


174  HISTORY   OF   THE 

yesterday's  commiittee.  The  general  law  was  not  passed 
until  March  i6,  1786,  when  it  was  adopted  under  the  title 
of  ''an  act  to  incorporate  certain  persons  as  trustees  in  every 
religious  society  or  congregation  in  this  State,  for  transact- 
ing the  temporal  concerns  thereof." 

As  the  Treasurer  was  directed  in  1771  to  fund  and  loan 
any  sums  that  might  come  into  his  hands,  it  looks  as  if  there 
were  occasionally  some  receipts  beyond  the  pew-rents,  of 
which  there  was  certainly  no  surplus  for  investment.  Sev- 
eral small  legacies  were  realized  besides  those  already  men- 
tioned. By  the  will  of  Jethro  Yard,  proved  February  16, 
1 761,  seven  pounds  were  left  "to  the  Presbyterian  Congre- 
gation of  Trenton,  to  be  paid  to  the  overseers  of  the  poor 
of  said  town."  In  1780,  John  Howell,  one  of  the  executors 
of  his  brother  Daniel,  gave  notice  that  the  testator  had  given 
twenty  pounds  for  the  use  of  the  congregation.^ 

Dr.  Spencer's  name  is  usually  found  in  connection  with 
such  patriotic  demonstrations  of  his  times  as  were  consistent 
with  his  profession.  When  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis  was 
celebrated  in  Trenton,  October  27,  1781,  the  Governor, 
Council,  Assembly,  and  citizens,  went  in  procession  to  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  where  Dr.  Spencer  delivered  a  dis- 
course. On  the  fifteenth  April,  1783,  similar  ceremonies 
were  observed  upon  the  conclusion  of  peace  with  Great 
Britain.  The  Governor,  Vice-President  of  the  State,  Mem- 
bers of  the  Legislature,  Judges,  and  other  public  officers 
met  at  Williams's  hotel ;  the  trustees,  teachers,  and  students 
O'f  the  Academy  joined  them  there,  and  proceeded  to  the 
Court-house,  where  the  Governor's  proclamation  of  the 
cessation  of  hostilities  was  read.  At  noon  divine  service 
was  attended,  when  a  discourse  was  delivered  by  Dr.  Spen- 
cer. Public  dinners  followed  at  Witt's,  Williams's  and 
Cape's  hotels.  A  few  days  afterwards,  when  the  Governor 
(Livingston)  was  about  tO'  leave  the  capital  for  his  resi- 
dence at  Elizabethtown,  Dr.  Spencer's  name  was  at  the  head 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  175 

of  a  committee  of  citizens  who  presented  him  a  valedictory 
address.^ 

Dr.  Spencer  preached  at  the  opening-  of  Presbytery  at 
Freehold,  October  21,  1783.  He  was  present  in  that  court 
for  the  last  time,  in  Pennington,  June  15,  1784,  when  he  was 
appointed  to  preach  at  the  ordination  and  installment  of 
Mr.  William  Boyd,  at  Bedminster,  on  the  nineteenth 
October.  This  proved  to  be  within  a  few  weeks  of  his  de- 
cease, but  his  failure  to  take  the  part  assigned  to  him  was 
not  owing  to  his  final  illness,  for  that  was  an  inflammatory 
fever  of  a  few  days'  continuance.  He  died  December  2^, 
1784,  in  the  full  support  of  the  Christian  hope.  His  re- 
mains lie  on  the  western  side  of  the  church  yard  under  a 
tomb  inscribed  as  follows : 

"Beneath  this  stone  Hes  the  body  of  the  Rev.  Elihu  Spencer,  D.D., 
Pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Trenton,  and  one  of  the  Trus- 
tees of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  who  departed  this  life  on  the 
twenty-seventh  of  December,  1784,  in  the  sixty-fourth  year  of  his  age. 

"Possessed  of  fine  genius,  of  great  vivacity,  of  eminent  and  active 
piety,  his  merits  as  a  minister  and  as  a  man  stand  above  the  reach  of 
flattery. 

"Having  long  edified  the  Church  by  his  talents  and  example,  and 
finished  his  course  with  joy,  he  fell  asleep  full  of  faith,  and  waiting 
for  the  hope  of  all  saints. 

"Mrs.  Joanna   Spencer, 

"Relict  of  the  above,  died  November  ist,  1791,  aged  sixty-three  years. 
"From  her  many  virtues  she  lived  beloved  and  died  lamented.  The 
cheerful  patience  with  which  she  bore  a  painful  and  tedious  disease 
threw  a  lustre  on  the  last  scenes  of  her  life,  and  evinces  that  with  true 
piety  death  loses  its  terrors." 

The  late  Dr.  Miller  declares  that  the  eulogy  of  Spencer's 
epitaph  is  not  exaggerated : 

"His  piety  was  ardent,  his  manners  polished,  attractive,  and  full  of 
engaging  vivacity ;  his  public  spirit  and  activity  in  doing  good  inde- 
fatigable, and  his  character  as  a  preacher  singularly  prompt,  popular, 
and  impressive.  To  all  this  may  be  added  that  in  the  various  relations 
of  life  he  was  peculiarly  amiable,  exemplary,  and  beloved." 


176  HISTORY   OF   THE 

The  venerable  father  who  wrote  these  sentences  was  con- 
nected by  marriage  with  Dr.  Spencer's  family;  for  the 
widow  of  Dr.  Miller  is  the  granddaughter  of  Dr.  Spencer, 
by  the  marriage  of  the  Hon.  Jonathan  Dickinson  Sergeant 
to  Margaret  Spencer.  The  late  Hon.  John  Sergeant,  the 
Hon.  Thomas  Sergeant,  and  the  late  Elihu  Spencer  Ser- 
geant, Esq.,  of  Philadelphia,  were  children  of  the  same 
marriage.  Dr.  Spencers  ancestors  came  from  England  to 
Massachusetts  early  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Of  the 
five  brothers  who  established  the  family  there,  one  was  a 
forefather  of  the  late  Qiief  Justice  Ambrose  Spencer,  of 
New  York;  from  another  brother  was  descended,  in  the 
seventh  generation,  the  late  Rev.  Ichabod  Smith  Spencer, 
D.D.,  of  Brooklyn;  and  General  Joseph  Spencer,  whose 
name  often  occurs  in  the  Revolutionary  history,  was  an 
elder  brother  of  our  pastor. 

Dr.  Spencer  bequeathed  to  his  five  surviving  daughters, 
and  the  children  of  a  deceased  one,  three  thousand  acres 
of  land  in  Saltash,  Vermont,^  and  to  his  son,  John  Eaton, 
one  thousand  acres  in  Woodstock,  Vermont.  There  still 
remains  in  the  possession  of  his  descendants  a  lot  of  ground 
in  the  city  of  Trenton,  which  has  in  the  lapse  of  time  be- 
come more  valuable  than  all  the  Vermont  acres. 

NOTES. 


Governor  William  Livingston  resided  three  years  in  Trenton,  and 
was,  undoubtedly,  a  regular  attendant  on  Dr.  Spencer's  ministry.  His 
previous  life  had  brought  him  into  prominence  as  an  ecclesiastical  con- 
trovertist.  His  ancestors  were  of  the  Dutch  Church  in  New  York,  but 
the  Governor  had  early  united  with  the  party  which,  for  the  sake  of 
having  English  preaching,  had  merged  into  the  Presbyterians.  The 
dispute,  which  arose  in  1751,  between  the  adherents  of  the  Church  of 
England  and  the  other  churches  in  reference,  at  first,  to  the  claims 
of  the  former  to  have  the  College  (then  King's  now  Columbia,)  which 
was  founded  in  that  year,  under  their  control,  was  warmly  espoused  by 
Mr.  Livingston  in  defense  of  those  who  were  threatened  with  exclu- 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  177 

sion.  He  wrote  largely  and  vehemently  for  his  side  in  "The  Inde- 
pendent Reflector"  and  "The  Watch-tower."  He  entered  into  the  sub- 
sequent controversy  on  the  attempt  to  establish  the  English  episcopacy 
in  America,  and  in  1768  published  a  letter  to  the  Bishop  of  Llandaff. 
which  was  reprinted  in  London.  His  opposition,  it  should  be  noted, 
was  not  to  the  liberty  of  any  church,  but  to  the  proposal  to  establish 
a  particular  denomination  in  the  Colonies,  as  in  England,  Mr.  Liv- 
ingston must  have  departed  from  his  habits  in  those  days,  if  he  were 
not  punctual  in  his  pew  at  Trenton ;    for,  according  to  his  biographer : 

"Actively  engaged  during  the  week,  in  discharging  the  duties  of  a 
laborious  profession,  [the  law,]  or  in  an  angry  warfare  in  defense  of 
his  civil  and  religious  rights,  three  times  on  every  Sabbath,  surrounded 
by  his  numerous  family,  he  went  up  to  that  church,  [Wall  Street,] 
formerly  contemned  and  oppressed,  but  for  which  his  exertions  had 
procured  respect ;  of  which  he  was  one  of  the  brightest  ornaments  and 
chief  supports."* 

In  his  first  address  to  the  Legislature,  as  Governor,  (September  13, 
1776,)  Mr.  Livingston  had  used  the  expression,  "setting  our  faces  like 
a  flint  against  that  dissoluteness  of  manners  and  political  corruption 
which  will  ever  be  the  reproach  of  any  people."  From  this  phrase  and 
the  religious  tone  of  the  whole  passage,  the  Governor  was  for  some 
time  nicknamed  "Doctor  Flint."  This  gave  rise  to  an  amusing  con- 
tretemps at  a  dinner-table  in  New  York,  when  Fisher  Ames,  addressing 
Livingston,  said  unconsciously :  "Doctor  Flint,  is  the  town  of  Trenton 
well  or  ill-disposed  to  the  new  Constitution?"! 

II. 

In  December,  1783,  died  David  Cowell,  M,.D.,  who  has  been  men- 
tioned in  a  previous  chapter  as  a  student  in  Princeton  College  at  the 
time  of  the  death  of  his  uncle,  the  pastor,  who  bequeathed  him  an 
annuity  of  twenty  pounds  for  three  years.  Upon  his  graduation,  in 
1763,  he  studied  medicine  in  Philadelphia,  took  his  degree  and  came 
to  Trenton,  where  he  practiced  until  his  death.  For  two  years  he 
was  senior  physician  and  surgeon  in  military  hospitals.  Dr.  Cowell 
undertook  to  draft  an  outline  of  his  will  while  suffering  under  an 
attack  of  quinsy,  and  within  a  few  hours  of  its  fatal  termination. 
Unable  to  articulate,  he  hastened  to  make  a  rough  outline  of  his  inten- 
tions, which  he  doubtless  hoped  to  have  had  put  into  form  by  another 
hand ;  but  he  was  compelled,  by  the  force  of  the  disease,  to  have  the 
paper  copied  in  the  incomplete  terms  in  which  he  had  drawn  it.  It 
began:  "I,  Doctor  David  Cowell,  being  of  sound  judgment,  but  not 
able  to  talk  much."    One  of  the  first  items  was,  "my  negro  man,  Adam, 


*  Sedgwick's   Memoir   of   Livingston,   chap.   iv. 
t  Sedgwick,  chap.  vii. 

12    PRES 


178      HISTORY   OF   FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH. 

and  the  whole  affair  to  the  Presbyterian  Congregation,"  In  equally- 
brief  and  informal  phrases  stood  a  hundred  pounds  to  "the  Grammar 
School  in  Trenton" — the  same  amount  to  the  College  of  New  Jersey, 
and  "to  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  of  America,  one  hundred 
pounds,  if  they  settle  themselves  at  Lamberton."  He  appointed  Major 
William  Trent  one  of  his  executors,  and  made  John  Trent,  probably 
a  son  of  the  Major,  his  residuary  legatee.  As  he  drew  towards  the 
close  of  his  painful  task  he  throws  in  a  hurried  remark:  "Had  not  I 
been  on  many  public  matters,  it's  likely  I  should  had  a  more  particular 
will  before  this  time."  By  the  time  the  copy  was  ready  for  his  signa- 
ture, he  must  have  felt  unable  to  write,  for  it  was  subscribed  by  his 
"mark."  But  having  the  pen  in  hand,  he  seems  to  have  made  a  last 
effort,  and  having  made  the  customary  cross  between  his  Christian 
and  surname,  scribbled  the  incoherent  or  illegible  sentence:  "But 
I  believe  I  am  not  quite  so  clear  to  me  as  my  own  D.  C.  our  connection 
is  now  dissolved."  Ebenezer  Cowell,  Jr.,  entered  a  caveat  against  the 
probate  of  the  will,  but  after  taking  evidence,  the  Surrogate  admitted 
it.  The  documents  of  the  Trustees  do  not  discover  whether  the  legacy 
of  the  negro  became  available.  "The  whole  affair"  appended  to  it  was 
probably  a  law-point ;  for  in  the  New  Jersey  Gazette  of  1780,  there  are 
inserted,  first,  an  advertisement  by  Dr.  Cowell,  of  a  negro  man  to  be 
sold,  or  exchanged  for  a  boy ;  and  immediately  under  it,  another,  cau- 
tioning all  persons  against  making  any  such  purchase  or  exchange,  as 
the  man  was  entitled  to  his  freedom,  and  ending  with  an  expression 
of  his  hope  for 

"That  freedom,  justice,  and  protection  which  I  am  entitled  to  by  the 
laws  of  the  State,  although  I  am  a  negro. 

"Adam.^^ 

These  missives  are  followed  by  the  Doctor,  with  a  denial  of  Adam's 
averment;  and  this  by  a  rejoinder  in  Adam's  name,  which  in  turn  is 
answered  by  Cowell,  who  alleges  that  the  negro  is  acting  under  the 
instigation  of  two  very  respectable  citizens,  whom  he  names. 

The  New  Jersey  Gazette  of  the  week  announces  Dr.  Cowell's  death 
as  having  taken  place  early  in  the  morning  of  December  18,  1783,  and 
his  burial  on  the  following  day,  in  the  Presbyterian  church-yard,  at- 
tended by  the  "Trustees,  tutors,  and  students  of  the  Academy  in  pro- 
cession, and  a  verj'  large  concourse  of  respectable  inhabitants."  An  ad- 
dress was  made  at  the  grave  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Spencer.  After  men- 
tioning the  legacy  to  the  Government,  the  Gazette  adds :  "The  above 
is  the  first  legacy  we  recollect  to  have  been  given  to  the  United  States, 
and  is  respectable  for  a  person  of  moderate  fortune."  In  the  same 
paper  Dr.  John  Cowell  advertises  that  he  has  been  prevailed  upon  by 
the  friends  of  his  deceased  brother  to  establish  himself  in  Trenton  as 
a  physician.  But  he  had  a  short  time,  as  his  gravestone  marks  his 
death  "January  30,  1789,  in  the  thirtieth  year  of  his  age.'" 


CHAPTER   XV. 

The  Rev.  James  Francis  Armstrong — Previous 
History  and  SetteEment. 

1750^1790. 

Dr.  Spencer's  successor  in  the  Trenton  churches  was  the 
Rev.  James  Francis  Arrastrong,  and  the  history  of  his 
pastorate  will  be  introduced  by  a  sketch  oif  his  previous  life. 

Mr.  Armstrong  was  bom  in  West  Nottingham,  Mary- 
land, April  3,  1750.  His  father,  Francis  Armstrong,  was 
an  elder  of  the  church  in  that  place.  Part  of  his  education 
was  received  at  Pequea,  but  his  chief  training  was  at  the 
celebrated  school  founded  by  the  Rev.  Samuel  Blair,  at 
Fagg's  Manor,  or  New  Londonderry,  Chester  county,  Penn- 
sylvania, where  President  Davies,  Dr.  Rodgers,  and  Dr. 
Finley  had  preceded  him  as  pupils.  When  Mr.  Armstrong 
was  in  the  school  it  was  under  the  Rev.  John  Blair,  a 
younger  brother  oi  its  founder,  afterwards  chosen  as  Vice- 
President  and  Professor  of  Theology  in  Princeton  College. 

In  the  autumn  of  1771,  Armstrong  entered  the  junior 
class  at  Princeton,  and  had  the  advantage  of  residing  in 
the  family  of  President  Witherspoon.  Several  of  his  class- 
mates are  now  known  from  the  public  stations  they  were 
called  to  fill;  such  as  Governor  Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia, 
Governor  Morgan  Lewis,  of  New  York,  Governor  Aaron 
Ogden,  Oif  New  Jersey,  President  Dunlap,  oi  Jefferson 
College,  President  Macknight,  of  Dickinson,  President  John 
Blair  Smith,  of  Hampden  Sidney  and  Union,  and  President 
William  Graham  of  Liberty  Hall  (Washington  College), 
Virginia.     Aaron  Burr,  the  unworthy  son  of  the  Princeton 

(179) 


i8o  HISTORY   OF   THE 

President,  was  one  of  his  contemporaries  in  college.  Mr. 
Armstrong  himself  had  the  ministry  in  view  when  he  en- 
tered college,  and  accordingly,  upon  his  graduation  in  the 
autumn  of  1773,  he  commenced  a  theological  course  under 
Dr.  Witherspoon.  On  the  sixth  June,  1776,  he  was  recog- 
nized by  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick  as  a  candidate 
for  the  ministry.  It  was  not  easy  at  that  period  of  Ameri- 
can history  for  Presbyteries  to  assemble  in  full  number,  and 
the  only  members  present  at  this  meeting,  which  was  held 
in  Princeton,  were  President  Witherspoon,  Rev.  William 
Tennent,  Rev.  Elihu  Spencer,  and  Mr.  Baldwin,  an  elder 
of  the  Princeton  Church.  The  subject  assigned  for  Mr. 
Armstrong's  exegesis  was,  "De  veritate  Christiana;  relig- 
ionis,"  and  i  Timothy  1:15  the  text  for  a  sermon.  On  the 
first  of  the  following  August,  at  Amwell,  those  exercises 
were  heard  and  sustained.  His  trials  were  continued  at 
Basking  Ridge  in  October,  when  he  passed  the  examination 
on  scholarship  and  theology,  and  was  directed  to  prepare  a 
sermon  on  Romans  12:2,  tO'  be  delivered  at  the  next  meet- 
ing, which  was  appointed  tO'  be  lield  in  Shrewsbury,  in 
December.^  But  great  events  happened  between  the  June 
and  the  December  of  1776.  According  to'  the  minutes,  the 
"appointment  could  not  be  fulfilled,  as  the  enemy  were  on 
their  march  through  this  State."  Another  minute  of  the 
same  session  (April  23,  1777)  postpones  the  prosecution 
of  a  plan  for  the  education  of  poor  and  pious  youth,  on 
account  of  "the  great  difficulties  of  the  times,  arising  from 
the  ravages  of  the  British  army  within  our  bounds."  In 
consequence  of  this  confusion,  the  regularity  of  Mr.  Arm- 
strong's progress  as  a  candidate  was  interrupted,  and  acting 
upon  the  best  advice,  he  was  transferred  to  another  Presby- 
tery, in  the  manner  stated  as  follows : 

"The  Presbytery  [of  New  Brunswick]  is  informed  by  one  of  the 
members  present,  that  in  November  last,  about  the  time  that  the 
British   army  made   an  irruption   into   New   Jersey,   Dr.   Witherspoon 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  i8i 

gave  Mr.  Armstrong  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the  Presbytery  of 
Newcastle,  informing  them  of  the  progress  he  had  made  in  his  trials, 
and  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  Presbytery's  meeting  to  receive 
his  popular  sermon  in  December  last,  according  to  appointment ;  in 
consequence  of  which  letter  the  Presbjrtery  of  Newcastle  admitted 
him  to  finish  his  trials  before  them,  and  licensed  him  to  preach  as  a 
candidate  for  the  Gospel  ministry." 

He  received  his  license  as  a  probationer  in  January, 
1777.2 

Even  before  that  date  (which  was  the  month  of  the  battle 
of  Princeton)  the  war  had  approached  so  near  the  region  of 
his  residence,  that  Mr.  Armstrong  thought  it  to  be  his  duty 
to  unite  with  its  armed  defenders,  and  took  a  musket  in  a 
company  of  volunteers  commanded  by  Peter  Gordon,  Esq., 
afterwards  an  elder  with  him  in  the  session  of  the  Trenton 
Church.^  This  was,  probably,  only  for  an  emergency;  but 
he  felt  that  his  patriotic  ardor  could  be  indulged  in  a  better 
consistency  with  his  duties  as  a  Christian  minister,  by  serv- 
ing as  a  chaplain  in  the  American  army.  With  that  view 
the  Newcastle  Presbytery  admitted  him  to'  ordination  in 
January,  1778.  When  this  was  reported  to-  the  Synod  in 
May,  the  higher  court  hesitated  about  approving  an  ordina- 
tion which  appeared  to  be  sine  titulo,  that  is,  before  his  be- 
ing called  to  some  particular  charge.  The  misapprehension 
arose  from  the  absence  of  the  ofificial  records ;  upon  the 
production  of  which,  in  May,  1779  (when  Mr.  Armstrong 
took  his  seat) ,  the  Synod  made  this  minute : 

"By  the  report  now  made  by  the  Newcastle  Presbytery,  it  appears 
that  there  was  a  mistake  in  the  report  of  last  year  respecting  Mr. 
Armstrong's  ordination;  that  he  was  not  ordained  sine  titulo,  but  in 
consequence  of  his  having  accepted  a  chaplaincy  in  the  army."* 

The  Newcastle  records,  as  furnished  me  by  their  obliging 
clerk,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Dubois,  are  as  follows: 

"December  2,  1777,  Mr.  James  Armstrong,  a  probationer  of  this 
Presbytery,  being  chosen   chaplain   for   General   Sullivan's  brigade   or 


i82  HISTORY   OF  THE 

division,  applied  for  ordination  to  the  work  of  the  Gospel  ministry, 
having  produced  a  certificate  of  his  moral  conduct  from  General  Sulli- 
van. The  Presbytery,  after  examining  Mr.  Armstrong  at  some  length 
upon  experimental  and  systematic  divinity,  were  satisfied  with  his 
answers,  and  having  had  a  good  report  of  his  labors,  appointed  Mr. 
Armstrong  to  deliver  a  discourse  at  our  next  meeting,  with  a  view 
to  his  ordination." 

The  ordination  took  place  at  Pequea,  the  place  of  his 
early  education,  January  14,  1778,  and  the  official  record 
of  it  gives  these  particulars: 

"Mr.  Armstrong  having  accepted  the  Westminster  Confession  of 
Faith  and  Catechisms,  as  received  in  our  Church,  as  the  confession 
of  his  faith,  and  the  Directory  for  Discipline,  Worship,  and  Govern- 
ment as  the  plan  for  substance  constituted  by  Christ;  and  given  satis- 
factory answers  respecting  his  views  in  entering  upon  the  Gospel 
ministry,  and  to  other  questions,  the  Presbytery  conclude  that  we  have 
clearness  to  set  him  apart  to  the  work  of  the  ministry.  And,  accord- 
ingly, after  a  sermon  preached,  suitable  to  the  occasion,  by  the  Rev. 
Mr.  Robert  Smith,  he  was  solemnly  set  apart  to  the  Gospel  ministry, 
with  fasting,  prayer,  and  imposition  of  hands.  The  charge  was  given 
by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Foster,  and  Mr.  Armstrong  now  becomes  a  member 
of  Presbytery,  and  having  received  the  right-hand  of  fellowship,  takes 
his  seat." 

In  consequence  of  the  unsettled  life  into^  which  he  was 
thrown  by  the  duties  of  the  chaplaincy,  and  by  other  inci- 
dents of  the  state  of  the  country,  it  was  not  in  Mr.  Arm- 
strong's power  to  maintain  the  punctual  correspondence  with 
his  Presbytery,  required  of  all  its  members.  In  1784  offi- 
cial inquiry  was  made  of  him  on  this  account,  and  his  rea- 
sons were  received  as  satisfactory.  He  retained  his  connec- 
tion with  the  Newcastle  Presbytery  until  his  dismission  to 
that  of  New  Bnmswick,  April  26,  1786. 

The  minute  of  his  appointment  appears  in  the  Journal 
of  Congress,  of  July  17,  1778: 

"In  consequence  of  a  recommendation,  resolved,  that  the  Rev.  James 
Francis  Armstrong  be  appointed  chaplain  of  the  Second  Brigade  of 
Maryland  forces."" 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  183 

Before  receiving  his  commission  he  had  accompanied  the 
troops  on  the  Southern  campaign,  and  probably  remained 
in  the  service  until  the  decisive  victory  of  Yorktown,  O'cto- 
ber,  1 78 1.  During  this  period  Mr.  Armstrong  communi- 
cated to  the  New  Jersey  delegates  in  Congress  his  observa- 
tions of  current  events,  and  from  a  few  of  those  addressed 
to  the  Hon.  Wm.  Churchill  Houston,  I  introduce  some 
passages,  showing  at  once  a  glowing  and  intelligent  interest 
in  the  cause  of  his  country,  and  a  strong  abhorrence  of  the 
evils  of  the  most  justifiable  war.^ 

"Wilcock's  Iron  Works,  Deep  River,  North  Carolina,  July  8,  1780. 
We  have  marched  five  hundred  miles  from  Philadelphia,  ignorant  as 
the  Hottentot  of  the  situation  or  numbers  of  the  enemy.  Though  it 
was  long  known  that  we  were  marching  to  the  assistance  of  the  South, 
not  the  least  provision  was  made  to  hasten  or  encourage  our  march. 
Wagons  to  transport  the  baggage,  and  provisions  to  subsist  the  troops, 
have  both  been  wanting.  We  have  for  some  time  depended  upon  the 
precarious  and  cruel  practice  of  impressing  horses  from  post  to  post. 
We  have  also  been  driven  to  the  disagreeable  alternative  of  permitting 
the  men  to  murmur  and  languish  for  the  want  of  meat,  or  seizing 
cattle  on  the  march;  not  knowing  whose  property  they  were  unless 
the  owners  came  to  camp  to  complain  of  the  injury.  Horrid  war! 
Heaven's  greatest  curse  to  mankind !  We  are  told  things  will  grow 
better,  the  further  we  proceed  south;  but  the  hope  must  be  pre- 
cariously founded  which  depends  upon  the  complaisance  of  Gen.  Lord 
Cornwallis.  I  would  not  write  such  plain  truths,  did  you  not  know 
that  I  am  not  given  to  despondency;  and  I  have  the  same  providence 
to  call  forth  my  hopes,  which  exerted  itself  so  miraculously  when 
Howe  was  in  New  Jersey." 

"River  Peedee,  Masque's  Ferry,  August  3,  1780.  What  the  troops, 
officers,  as  well  as  privates  have  suffered  is  beyond  description.  The 
corporal  of  Gen.  Gist's  guard  has  returned  for  the  second  time  to-day 
from  the  commissary's  without  being  able  to  draw  any  provisions,  and 
declares  to  me  that  for  seven  days  they  have  only  drawn  two  days' 
beef,  but  not  a  particle  of  meal  or  flour.  The  eye  of  the  most  rigid 
justice  must  wink  at  plunder  in  such  circumstances;  and  such  is  the 
scarcity  which  reigns  upon  the  Peedee,  that  provisions  cannot  be  ob- 
tained even  by  unjustifiable  methods.  Apples  have  been  the  only 
support  of  the  troops  for  several  days  at  a  time.  Indeed  I  thought 
it  impossible  for  human  nature  to  have  subsisted  so  long  as  I  have 
known  it  to  do  upon  green   fruit.     Fortunately  green  corn  has  sue- 


i84  HISTORY   OF   THE 

ceeded  apples,  but,  without  some  less  precarious  and  more  substantial 
supplies,  the  effect  must  be  dreadful.  The  hopes  of  final  success  never 
forsake  me  for  a  moment,  but  everything  discouraging  dwells  around 
our  little  army.  We  have  not  much,  I  believe,  to  fear  from  the  enemy, 
but  troops  must  be  more  or  less  than  men  who  can  long  endure  what 
we  now  suffer." 

He  wrote  as  follows  of  the  panic  then  prevailing  in  the 
Southern  States,  and  the  injury  done  to  the  American 
cause  by  the  conduct  of  the  militia : 

"The  march  of  Howe  through  Jersey  spread  not  half  the  terror 
which  has  been  inspired  by  our  defeats  at  the  South.  Those  who 
escaped  spread  universal  terror.  All  was  conquered,  ruined,  undone ! 
Even  the  dominion  of  Virginia  must  fall !  And,  by  the  by,  had  Clinton 
entered  it  with  his  army,  they  must  have  made  a  temporary  submission, 
at  least  until  our  army  could  have  marched  to  their  assistance.  We 
scarcely  meet  a  man  who  has  not  taken  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  his 
majesty  of  Britain,  or  given  his  parole  that  he  would  be  neuter,  and 
give  himself  up  a  prisoner  when  called  upon.  The  common  people 
of  the  Carolinas  are  not  to  blame.  Looking  upon  every  thing  as 
lost,  what  could  they  do?  The  appearance  of  an  army  with  lenity 
would,  in  a  short  time,  have  called  all  such  to  the  American  standard, 
were  they  not  prevented  by  the  militia,  who  take  them  prisoners,  use 
them  unmercifully,  plunder  and  destroy  their  effects,  and  leave  their 
helpless  women  and  children  in  the  utmost  distress ;  so  that  many  of 
them  have  left  their  families  and  carried  off  their  negroes  and  cattle, 
some  to  the  enemy  and  some  to  escape  the  route  of  our  army.  We 
have  passed  whole  neighborhoods  deserted  by  the  inhabitants,  and  the 
few  who  remain  trembling  alive  from  the  horrid  accounts  which  have 
been  spread  of  our  army  as  a  number  of  banditti,  plundering  all  before 
them,  and  hanging  forty  or  fifty  at  a  time  of  those  who  had  taken  the 
oath  to  the  King:  though  false,  very  laughable." 

A  letter  dated  at  Hillsborough,  the  headquarters  of  the 
army,  October  i6,  1780,  is  resumed  after  a  few  lines,  on 
the  thirty-first  of  the  same  month.  The  explanation  of 
the  interval  fixes  the  beginning  of  the  disorder  which 
afflicted  Mr.  Armstrong  during  the  remainder  of  his  life: 

"The  blank  between  the  dates  has  been  filled  up  with  the  most 
violent  pains  through  my  bones.  To  what  species  they  belong,  I  can 
find  no  one  wise  enough  to  inform  me.     They  have  at  times  been  so 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  185 

violent,  that  insensibility  by  the  use  of  opium  has  been  my  only 
resource  for  rest.  They  seem  to  be  pretty  well  removed,  but  an 
attempt  to  ride  on  horseback  has  once  or  twice  brought  them  back 
again,  which  makes  me  unwilling  to  renew  the  experiment  until  their 
light  flying  parties   completely  take   themselves   off." 

"I  am  highly  dehghted,"  he  remarks  to  his  correspondent, 
"with  your  sentiments  on  universal  liberty.  They  have 
long  been  mine.  I  was  instructed  in  them  before  I  could 
reason." 

The  last  letter  of  the  campaiign  which  is  extant,  is  dated 
at  Charlotte,  December  8,  1780,  when  Gen.  Greene  had  just 
taken  the  chief  command.     In  it  he  says: 

"There  is  not  a  single  department  of  our  army  which  has,  for  some 
time  past,  maintained  the  least  regularity,  unless  we  are  permitted  to 
call  it  regular  confusion.  Think  then  what  must  be  the  situation  of 
our  present  Commander-in-Chief,  with  few  regulars,  and  those  in 
such  circumstances  as  often  to  stagger  my  faith  whether  desertion  be 
a  crime,  especially  in  a  person  of  no  more  refined  sentiments  than  a 
soldier  of  the  common  level,  and  with  militia  whose  conduct  has  been 
one  cause  of  our  common  disasters.  The  want  of  provision,  which 
lays  the  foundation  for  the  distressing  necessity  of  permitting  the 
troops  often  to  cater  for  themselves,  has  prostrated  every  idea  of 
discipline,  and  given  the  reins  to  the  most  licentious  conduct.  An 
unremitting  supply  of  food  alone  can  restrain,  and  in  time  correct  our 
dangerous  manners.  General  Greene  has  already  taken  measures 
which  promise  everything.  The  heads  of  the  Roanoke,  Dan,  Catawba, 
and  the  Rocky  river,  which  have  hitherto  been  considered  as  useless  in 
the  creation,  are  to  transport  our  provisions  from  Virginia." 

"I  have  made  an  observation  since  I  came  South  which  I  did 
not  advert  to  before.  The  inhabitants  of  a  State  necessary  for  its 
defense  in  time  of  war,  or  even  on  a  sudden  invasion,  must  treble 
or  quadruple  the  number  immediately  necessary  for  the  field.  With- 
out establishing  this  proportion,  when  those  necessary  to  cultivate  the 
land,  the  timorous,  the  disaffected,  and  delinquents  of  all  orders, 
whom  it  is  out  of  the  power  of  government  to  bring  to  the  field,  are 
laid  aside,  no  country  can  defend  itself.  This  appears  to  me  to  be 
the  condition  of  Virginia  and  North  Carolina,  unless  the  blacks  are 
called  in  to  their  assistance.  I  really  pity  the  gentlemen  of  Virginia, 
of  enlarged  and  liberal  minds.  They  are  as  good  theoretic  politicians 
as  any  on  the  continent;  but  when  they  meet  in  Assembly  and  make 
the  best  laws  in  the  world  for  the  defense  of  a  State,  there  are  not 
white  subjects  sufficient  in  the  State  for  the  laws  to  operate  upon."^ 


i86  HISTORY   OF  THE 

We  find  Mr.  Armstrong  returned  to  New  Jersey  in  1782^ 
as  in  the  June  of  that  year  he  began  to  supply  the  church 
of  EHzabethtown,  made  vacant  by  the  assassination  of  the 
Rev.  James  Caldwell.  In  the  month  of  August  he  was 
married,  by  Dr.  Witherspoon,  to  Susannah  Livingston,  a 
daughter  of  Robert  James  Livingston,  whose  widow,  Mrs. 
Armstrong's  mother,  was  residing  at  Princeton  for  the 
education  of  her  sons,  three  of  whom.,  William  Smith,  Peter 
R.,  and  Maturin,  graduated  at  that  college.  Mr.  Arm- 
strong's service  at  EHzabethtown  was  terminated  in  1783, 
by  an  illness  which  required  him  to  suspend  his  labors. 

Upon  Dr.  Spencer's  death  in  Trenton,  in  December, 
1784,  Mr.  Armstrong  preached  his  funeral  sermon,  and 
afterwards  frequently  supplied  the  vacant  pulpit.  At  a 
meeting  of  the  Trustees,  October  17,  1785,  they  "agreed  to 
present  a  call  to  the  Presbytery  at  Pennington,  to-morrow 
for  the  Rev.  Mr.  Armstrong  to  settle  in  this  congregation, 
and  appointed  Mr.  Benjamin  Smith  [one  of  the  elders] 
to  present  the  call  to  the  Presbytery."  It  is  probable 
that  there  had  been  a  previous  election  by  the  congre- 
gation, at  which  the  Trustees  were  empowered  to  take  the 
regular  steps  for  effecting  the  call.  The  minutes  of  the 
meeting  at  Pennington  were  never  recorded.  When  the 
Presbytery  met  in  Trenton,^  April  25,  1786,  Mr.  Armstrong 
being  present  as  a  corresponding  member,  it  is  recorded : 

"On  the  call  offered  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Armstrong  at  the  last  meeting 
of  Presbytery,  Mr.  A.  informed  the  Presbytery  that  several  steps  have 
been  taken  towards  obtaining  his  dismission  from  the  Presb>1;ery  of 
Newcastle,  and  preparing  the  way  for  his  settlement  in  the  congre- 
gation of  Trenton;  and  that  he  hoped  soon  to  give  his  final  answer." 

On  the  day  he  made  this  statement  the  Newcastle  Pres- 
bytery complied  with  his  request,  and  on  the  seventeenth 
October,  his  name  appears  among  the  members  of  the  New 
Brunswick  Presbytery,  without  any  preceding  record  of  his 
formal  reception.    The  question  of  the  call  being  up: 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  187 

"Mr.  Armstrong  being  not  yet  prepared  to  accept  this  call  from  the 
congregation  of  Trenton,  requested  longer  time  to  consider  the  matter, 
which    was    granted." 

The  impediment  seems  to  have  been  indefiniteness  as  to 
the  salary.  Mr.  Armstrong  was,  however,  considered  so 
far  committed  to  the  congregation  that  as  early  as  Feb- 
ruary 14,  1786,  his  name  appears  in  their  minutes  as  present 
as  "the  minister,"  who,  according  to  the  charter,  was  united 
with  ''the  elders  and  deacons"  in  the  election  of  Trustees.^ 
It  was  not  until  April  26,  1787,  that, 

"The  congregation  of  Trenton  having  informed  Presbytery  of  the 
sum  annexed  to  their  call,  presented  to  Mr.  Armstrong  some  time  ago, 
and  having  given  written  obligation  for  his  support,  Mr.  Armstrong 
accepted  of  their   call." 

There  is  no  record  of  the  installation. 

From  the  earliest  date  of  his  residence  here,  the  church 
was  open  for  the  commemoration  of  the  national  anni- 
versary, and  other  acknowledgments  of  the  divine  provi- 
dence in  public  affairs.  In  the  Gazette  of  July,  1786,  it  is 
published  that  on  the  fourth  instant  the  inhabitants  at 
eleven  o'clock  attended  the  Presbyterian  Church,  where 
they  heard  "an  animated  address  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Arm- 
strong; after  which  they  met  at  the  house  of  Mr.  Drake, 
partook  of  a  cold  collation,  and  retired  to  their  several  em- 
ployments." 

In  August,  1786,  a  subscription  of  one  hundred  pounds 
was  directed  to  be  undertaken  for  the  repairing  of  the  par- 
sonage for  the  new  pastor.^ °  Two  thirds  of  the  sum  were 
assessed  on  the  town  church,  and  the  other  third  on  the 
country  church,  and  in  this  proportion  the  two  divisions  of 
the  congregation  were  to  receive  the  Sabbath  services  of 
their  minister.  The  salary  was  two  hundred  pounds,  pay- 
able in  the  same  ratio.  In  April,  1787,  "the  old  house  con- 
gregation" informed  the  Board  of  Trustees  that  they  could 


i88  HISTORY   OF   THE 

not  raise  their  third  of  the  salary  for  only  a  third  of  the 
pastor's  time ;  whereupon  the  town  congregation  offered  to 
pay  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  salary,  and  have  the  ex- 
clusive services  of  the  minister.  In  the  following  October 
a  motion  was  made  in  the  Board, 

"By  Mr.  William  Burroughs,  Mr.  John  Howell,  and  Mr.  Ebenezer 
Rose,  for  a  separation;  and  that  we  join  with  the  country  part  to  give 
up  the  present  charter,  and  endeavor  to  get  each  a  separate  charter, 
and  divide  the  property  belonging  to  the  present  congregation;  which 
was   postponed    for    further   consideration." 

When  the  Board  met,  March  12,  1788, 

"The  gentlemen  of  the  country  part  of  the  congregation  agree  to 
give  their  answer  on  Wednesday  next,  the  nineteenth  instant,  what 
they  can  and  will  do  with  the  town  part." 

On  that  day,  it  being  reported  to  the  Board  that  "fifty 
pounds  can  not  be  raised  in  the  country  part  of  the  congre- 
gation belonging  to  the  Old  House,"  a  new  modification  was 
suggested,  namely,  that  "the  congregation  of  Trenton" 
should  pay  the  pastor  one  hundred  dollars  yearly  for  one- 
half  of  his  time,  and  consent  "that  he  may  dispose  of  the 
other  half  between  Maidenhead  and  the  Old  House,  as  he 
and  they  may  agree." 

By  an  Act  of  March  16,  1786,  the  Legislature  of  New 
Jersey  changed  the  law  of  corporations  (which  had  hitherto 
required  a  special  application  for  each  new  charter)  so  that 
any  Christian  society,  numbering  at  least  thirty  families, 
upon  the  election  of  trustees,  and  their  qualification  by  oath, 
and  the  filing  of  a  certificate  to  that  effect  with  the  County 
Clerk,  should,  by  that  process,  be  admitted  to  be  fully  in- 
corporated. The  town  part  of  the  Trenton  congregation 
soon  took  advantage  of  this  provision  to  obtain  a  charter 
to  supersede  that  of  George  H. ;  and  for  which  they  had 
ineffectually  applied  to  the  Legislature  of  1781,  through  Dr. 
Spencer.     The  congregation  met  May  4,   1788;    "having 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  189 

previously  agreed  to  admit  and  receive  the  inhabitants  of 
Lamberton,  and  those  between  that  and  Trenton,  who  may 
at  any  time  join  said  congregation,  as  entitled  to  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  their  Act  of  Incorporation;"  and 
elected  as  their  Trustees,  Alexander  Chambers,  Samuel 
Tucker,  Abraham  Hunt,  Moore  Furman,  Isaac  Smith,  Ber- 
nard Hanlon,  and  Hugh  Runyon.  The  corporate  title  as- 
sumed was,  "The  Trustees  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Trenton."  The  device  adopted  for  the  seal  (1790)  was  an 
open  Bible  with  a  burning  lamp  suspended  over  it,  and  the 
motto,  "Light  to  my  path."  Around  the  edge  is,  "Pres- 
byterian Church  of  Trenton." 

In  September,  1788,  "The  Board  of  Trustees  from  the 
country"  met  with  the  town  Board,  for  the  purpose  of  an 
equitable  division  of  the  bonds  and  other  securities  of  the 
old  corporation ;  and  in  April,  1790,  the  town  church  bought 
the  third  of  the  parsonage  of  their  late  co-partners  for  one 
hundred  pounds. ^^ 

On  the  twenty-third  April,  1790,  the  congregation  were 
called  together  in  reference  to  a  proposal  f romi  the  Maiden- 
head church ;  the  result  of  which  is  seen  in  the  proceedings 
of  the  Presbytery  of  the  twenty-eighth  April: 

"A  call  from  the  congregation  of  Maidenhead,  in  due  form,  signed 
by  their  Trustees,  stipulating  the  payment  of  one  hundred  pounds  in 
gold  or  silver,  in  half-yearly  payments,  for  half  of  the  ministerial 
labors  of  the  Rev.  James  F.  Armstrong,  accompanied  with  a  certifi- 
cate from  the  congregation  of  Trenton,  of  their  willingness  that  he 
should  accept  of  it,  was  laid  before  Presbytery,  and  the  Presbytery 
having  presented  the  said  call  to  Mr.  Armstrong,  he  declared  his 
acceptance  thereof." 

This  arrangement  continued  until  1806;  the  pastor  resid- 
ing in  Trenton  and  giving  his  attendance  on  the  Lord's  day 
alternately  at  the  two  churches.  In  assenting  to  the  plan, 
the  Trenton  people  stipulated  for  "the  privilege  of  present- 
ing a  call  at  some  future  time  to  Mr.  Armstrong  for  the 


igo  HISTORY   OF  THE 

whole  of  his  labor,  if  Providence  should  continue  him  in 
this  part  of  his  vineyard." 

NOTE. 

In  August,  1785,  the  Trenton  Gazette  announced  the  death  of 
"EbenEzer  Erskine,  nephew  to  the  late  Robert  Erskine."  He  died 
"at  the  seat  of  Robert  Lettis  Hooper,  near  Trenton,  and  was  interred 
in  the  Presbyterian  ground."  In  his  will,  made  in  his  last  illness,  he 
describes  himself  as  "late  of  the  city  of  Glasgow,  in  Scotland." 
"Being  weak  in  his  hand,  he  had  not  strength  to  write  his  Christian 
name,"  but  after  a  legacy  to  a  poor  boy  at  the  Iron  Works  in  New- 
foundland, Morris  county,  he  bequeathed  his  property  to  his  sister, 
Nancy  Erskine,  of  Edinburgh.  Mr.  Hooper  and  Samuel  W.  Stockton 
were  his  executors. 

The  will  of  the  uncle,  Robert  Erskine,  is  somewhat  of  an  autobiog- 
raphy. It  was  made  in  New  York,  Ringwood,  and  Philadelphia  in 
1776-9,  and  proved  at  Gloucester,  N.  J.,  November  21,  1780.  It  begins ; 
"I,  Robert  Erskine,  son  of  the  Rev.  Ralph  Erskine,  author  of  the 
Gospel  Sonnets,  etc.,  by  the  providence  of  God  at  present  in  America 
for  the  purpose  of  directing,  conducting,  and  taking  charge  of  several 
Iron  Works,  and  other  lands  and  property  belonging  to  gentlemen  in 
England,  who  style  themselves  the  Proprietors  of  the  New  York  and 
New  Jersey  Iron  Works."  It  further  transpires  through  his  will,  that 
the  testator,  having  sunk  his  patrimony  in  his  London  trade,  became 
a  surveyor  and  engineer,  and  was  the  author  of  several  inventions, 
especially  of  a  centrifugal  engine,  of  the  success  of  which  he  was  so 
sanguine  as  to  leave  detailed  directions  how  his  widow  should  share 
the  profits  with  his  old  creditors.  Mr.  Hooper  was  connected  with 
these  Iron  Works.  Advertisements  in  1782-3,  signed  by  him,  in  be- 
half of  "the  American  Ringwood  Company,"  in  Bergen  county,  refer 
to  Ebenezer  Erskine  as  on  the  premises  at  Ringwood,  and  to  Robert 
Erskine  as  "the  late  agent  for  said  company."^" 

In  the  Trenton  Gazette  of  October  18,  1780,  is  this  notice:  "Died 
the  second  instant,  at  his  house  at  Ringwood,  Robert  ErskinE,  P.R.S., 
and  Geographer  to  the  Army  of  the  United  States,  in  the  forty-sixth 
year  of  his  age."  Some  of  the  military  maps  in  Mr.  Irving's  Life  of 
Washington  give  credit  for  their  origin  to  Mr.  Erskine's  manuscripts, 
which  are  now  in  the  possession  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society. 

The  memoir  prefixed  to  the  two  great  folios  of  the  Glasgow  edition 
(1764)  of  the  Rev.  Ralph  Erskine's  Works,  opens  thus:  "The  Rev. 
Mr.  Henry  Erskine,  the  author's  father,  was  amongst  the  younger 
of  the  thirty-three  children  of  Ralph  Erskine,  of  Shielfield."  The 
celebrated  sonnetteer  had  three  sons  in  the  ministry :  "his  only  son  now 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  igi 

in  life  is  Robert,  a  merchant  in  London,"  who  died  in  New  Jersey,  as 
stated  above.  Lord  Campbell  (himself  a  son  of  the  celebrated  Pres- 
byterian divine.  Dr.  George  Campbell,  of  Aberdeen),  in  his  Life  of 
Lord  Chancellor  Erskine,  says :  "The  Earl's  [Buchan,  the  Chancel- 
lor's father]  great-grandfather  had  suffered  in  the  Covenanting  cause 
in  the  preceding  century ;  and  those  pious  men,  Ralph  and  Ebenezer 
Erskine,  who  had  recently  seceded  from  the  estabUshment,  and  whose 
sentiments  have  been  adopted  and  acted  upon  by  the  Free  Church  of 
Scotland,  were  his  'far-away  cousins.' "  (Lives  of  the  Lord  Chancel- 
lors, chap,  clxxvi.) 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  General  Assembly — New  Constitution" 
oE  THE  Church — Notes. 

1785— 1790. 

Mr.  Armstrong  was  active,  both  in  Synod  and  Presby- 
tery, in  the  measures  which  residted  in  the  formation  of 
the  General  Assembly. 

In  the  year  1785  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadel- 
phia was  the  Supreme  Judicatory  or  Court  of  our  whole 
Church  in  the  United  States.  It  comprised  fourteen  Pres- 
byteries ;  namiely,  Suffolk,  Dutchess,  New  York,  New  Bruns- 
wick, First  Philadelphia,  Second  Philadelphia,  Newcastle, 
Donegal,  Lewes  or  Leweston,  Hanover,  Abington,  Orange, 
Redstone  and  South  Carolina.  Every  minister  and  one 
ruling  elder  from  each  session  were  then,  as  now,  entitled 
to  seats  in  the  Synod ;  but  the  list  shows  how  distant  were 
the  extremes  of  its  bounds,  and  the  roll  of  that  year's  session 
in  the  central  city  of  Philadephia  shows  how  this  distance 
prevented  a  full  representation;  for  on  the  first  day  there 
were  thirty  ministers  present  and  sixty-eight  absent,  not 
counting  six  entire  Presbyteries  without  a  single  commis- 
sioner. There  were  only  six  elders ;  and  during  the  session 
no  more  than  twelve  of  both  orders  dropped  in.  The  over- 
ture was  therefore  timely  which  was  then  presented,  pro- 
posing a  division  of  the  existing  Synod  into  several,  and 
the  formation  of  a  new  delegated  body,  as  a  General  Synod, 
Council  or  Assembly,  out  of  the  whole.  The  subject  being 
deferred  until  the  session  of  1786;  a  resolution  v^^as  in  that 
year  passed  in  favor  of  the  overture,  and  a  committee  ap- 

13  PRES  (193) 


194  HISTORY   OF   THE 

pointed  to  report  a  plan  of  division.  Their  report  recom- 
mended a  new  arrangement  of  the  bounds  of  the  Presby- 
teries and  the  formation  of  four  Synods,  to  be  subordinate 
to  a  General  Assembly.  The  proposed  alterations  in  the 
Presbyteries  were  adopted,  and  the  remaining  suggestions 
postponed  for  another  year.  At  the  same  session  a  com- 
mittee was  raised  to  digest  a  system  of  government  and 
discipline,  which  was  to  be  printed  and  distributed  among 
the  Presbyteries  for  their  opinion.^  This  pamphlet  was 
introduced  into  the  New  Brunswick  Presbytery  April  25, 
1787,  when  it  was  referred  for  examination  to  Dr.  Wither- 
spoon  and  Mr.  Armstrong,  together  with  James  Ewing, 
Esq.,  an  elder  of  the  Trenton  Church,  and  Mr.  Longstreet, 
an  elder  of  the  Princeton  Church,  to  report  in  the  next 
month ;  but  the  elders  not  attending  the  committee,  the 
clerical  members  did  not  offer  any  report.  On  the  seven- 
teenth May,  1787,  the  committee  of  Synod  reported  the 
draught  of  the  government  and  discipline,  and  it  was  daily 
discussed  by  paragraphs  until  the  twenty-eighth,  when  a 
thousand  copies  of  the  work,  as  amended,  were  ordered  to 
be  distributed  before  final  action.  The  same  committee 
were  directed  to  revise  the  Westminster  "Directory  for 
Public  Worship,"  and  add  it  to  the  printed  volume  to  be 
submitted  to  the  judgm'ent  of  the  churches. ^ 

The  last  meeting  held  by  the  Synod  of  New  York  and 
Philadelphia  was  opened  in  Philadelphia,  May  21,  1788.  Mr. 
Armstrong  was  clerk,  and  was  one  of  a  committee  to  select 
and  publish  the  most  important  proceedings  of  the  two 
closing  sessions  of  the  Synod,  with  certain  statistics  of  the 
churches.  On  the  twenty-third  the  draught  of  the  new 
system  came  up  for  co^nsideration,  and  on  the  twenty-sixth 
it  was  completed.  On  the  twenty-eighth  it  was  ratified  and 
adopted  as  "the  Constitution  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  America."  A  correct  copy  was  ordered  to  be  printed, 
together  with  the  "Westminster  Confession  of  Faith,  as 
making  a  part  of  the  Constitution." 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  195 

The  Synod  proceeded  to  consider  the  draught  O'f  the 
"'Directory  for  the  Worship  of  God,"  contained,  like  the 
basis  of  the  parts  already  adopted,  in  the  standard  books 
of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  and  after  revision  this  was 
adopted.  The  Westminster  Larger  and  Shorter  Catechisms 
were  then  sanctioned  as  they  stood,  excepting  a  slight 
amendment  of  the  former  on  a  point  referring  to  civil 
government,  and  were  ordered  to  be  inserted  in  the  same 
volume  with  the  confession,  form  of  government,  and  dis- 
cipline:— ^the  whole  to  be  considered  "as  the  standard  of 
our  doctrine,  government,  discipline  and  worship." 

Dr.  Duffield,  Mr.  Armstrong  and  Mr.  Ashbel  Green^ 
were  made  the  committee  to  superintend  the  publication  of 
the  whole  work.  Mr.  Armstrong  was  also'  associated  at 
this  time  with  Dr.  Witherspoon,  Dr.  S.  S.  Smith  and  others 
on  a  delegation  to  the  convention,  with  corresponding  dele- 
gates from;  the  Synods  of  the  Associate  Reformed  and  the 
Reformed  Dutch  Churches,  which  had  been  already  hold- 
ing several  conferences  with  a  view  to  some  systematic 
intercourse  of  those  three  Presbyterian  bodies. 

On  the  twenty-ninth  day  of  May  the  Synod  was  dissolved. 
It  had  then  one  hundred  and  seventy-seven  ministers,  eleven 
probationers,  and  four  hundred  and  nineteen  congregations. 
Fifteen  ministers  and  twenty-six  congregations  were  in 
the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick. 

By  the  new  arrangement  the  Presbyteries  of  Dutchess, 
Suffolk,  New  York  and  New  Brunswick  constituted  the 
"Synod  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey."  It  held  its  first 
meeting  in  New  York,  October  29,  1788,  when  Mr.  Arm- 
strong was  one  of  the  clerks.  The  Synod  taking  "into  con- 
sideration the  distressed  state  of  the  people  of  the  Presby- 
terian denomination  on  the  frontiers,"  resolved  to  send 
missionaries  among  them  the  next  summer,  and  appointed 
Dr.  Macwhorter  and  Mr.  Armstrong  to  spend  three  months 
in  this  service.     For  satisfactory  reasons  the  first  appoint- 


196-  HISTORY  OF  THE 

ment  was  not  carried  into  effect,  but  for  several  sessions 
an  annual  delegation  of  missionaries  was  made.  In  1794 
the  Synod  resolved  to  establish  "a  standing  and  continued 
mission  on  the  frontiers  of  New  York,"  and  Mr.  Ajrm- 
strong,  who  was  the  Moderator  of  that  year,  was  by  the 
house  placed  upon  a  committee  to  initiate  it.* 

The  three  other  Synods  into  which  the  parent  body  was 
divided  were  named  Philadelphia,  Virginia  and  the  Caro- 
linas.  "The  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  United  States  of  America,"  which  was  the  style  given 
to  the  chief  judicatory,  was  required  to  be  composed  of 
delegates  from  each  Presbytery,  in  proportion  to  their  num- 
bers. The  first  Assembly  met  in  the  Second  Church  (Arch 
Street)  of  Philadelphia,  on  "the  third  Thursday  of  May" 
(twenty-first),   1789. 

The  first  ratio  of  representation  in  the  General  Assembly 
was  one  minister  and  one  elder,  where  a  Presbytery  con- 
sisted of  not  more  than  six  ministers;  double  the  number 
where  it  consisted  of  more  than  six,  but  not  more  than 
twelve,  and  so  on.  New  Brunswick,  consisting  of  fifteen 
ministers,  was  entitled  to  three  commissioners  of  each 
order,  and  their  first  representatives  in  the  Assembly  were 
Dr.  Witherspoon,  Dr.  S.  S.  Smith,  and  Mr.  Armstrong,, 
with  elders  John  Bayard  of  New  Brunswick,  John  Carle 
of  Baskingridge,  and  Nehemiah  Dunham  of  Bethlehem. 

Mr.  Armstrong's  associations  with  the  Presidents  With- 
erspoon and  S.  Stanhope  Smith  were  those  of  neighbors  and 
strong  personal  friends.  The  names  of  the  three  constantly 
occur  on  the  same  committees  of  the  ecclesiastical  bodies  of 
which  they  were  fellow-members.  The  ancient  custom  of 
making  a  formal  acknowledgment  of  the  civil  authority 
was  continued,  for  some  time  after  the  Republic  was 
founded;  and  in  1790  the  three  friends  were  part  of  a  dele- 
gation of  Presbytery  to  present  a  congratulatory  address 
to  Governor  Paterson  on  his  accession.     In   1799  Smith, 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  197 

Hunter  and  Armstrong  were  appointed  to  report  on  a 
recommendation  from  the  superior  judicatories  favoring 
the  formation  of  societies  to  aid  the  civil  magistrate  in  the 
suppression  of  vice.  The  next  year  a  majority  of  the  com- 
mittee reported  adversely  to  the  proposition,  on  the  ground 
that  the  civil  and  religious  institutions  of  our  republic  being 
totally  separate,  the  best  way  left  for  ecclesiastical  bodies 
and  men  to  aid  the  laws  is  fidelity  in  pastoral  duties  and  in 
strengthening  moral  and  religious  principles  by  the  exten- 
sion of  religious  knowledge.  Mr.  Armstrong  entered  his 
dissent,  not  from  the  principles  of  the  report,  but  because 
he  regarded  it  as  contravening  the  recommendations  of 
Synod  and  Assembly. 

In  the  classical  Academy  which  was  founded  by  the 
"Trenton  School  Company"  in  1781,  Mr.  Armstrong  took 
an  active  interest.  In  1786  he  furnished  the  trustees  with 
a  draught  of  laws  for  the  government  of  the  schools.  In 
June,  1787,  he  was  engaged,  on  a  salary,  to  take  the  gen- 
eral superintendence  of  the  Academy,  giving  direction  to 
the  studies  and  discipline,  attending  in  person  as  occasion 
required,  and  employing  a  master.  This  plan  was  relin- 
quished in  September,  1788,  but  resumed  in  March,  1789, 
and  continued  until  his  resignation  in  January,  1791.  Upon 
his  withdrawal  the  Trustees  granted  him  the  privilege  of 
sending  two  of  his  children  to  the  school ;  and  in  the  news- 
paper of  January  6,  1797,  is  printed  an  oration  delivered  at 
a  late  public  examination  of  the  Academy  by  his  son, 
Robert  Livingston  Armstrong. 

NOTES. 

I. 

"The  Trenton  School  Company"  originated  in  a  meeting  of  citizens, 
lield  February  10,  1781.  The  original  capital  was  seven  hundred  and 
twenty  dollars,  divided  into  thirty-six  shares.  Part  of  the  lot  still 
occupied  by  the  Academy  in  Hanover   (then  Fourth)   street  was  pur- 


198  HISTORY   OF  THE 

chased,  and  a  stone  building  erected,  one  story  of  which  was  occupied 
in  1782.°  The  next  year  it  was  enlarged,  and  the  endowment  increased. 
In  1785  it  was  incorporated,  and  in  1794  its  funds  were  aided  by  a 
lottery.  In  1800  the  girls'  school  of  the  Academy  was  removed  to  the 
school-house  belonging  to  the  Presbyterian  Church.  The  grammar- 
school  attained  a  high  reputation  under  a  succession  of  able  masters. 
The  public  quarterly  examinations  were  usually  closed  with  exercises 
in  speaking  in  the  church.  The  newspapers  tell  of  the  "crowded  and 
polite  audiences"  which  attended,  usually  including  the  Governor, 
Legislature,  and  distinguished  strangers.  Among  the  latter,  in  1784, 
were  the  President  of  Congress,  the  Baron  Steuben,  and  members  of 
the  Congress  and  Legislature.  A  full  history  of  the  Academy  down  to 
1847  may  be  found  in  ten  successive  numbers  of  the  State  Gazette  of 
April  and  May  of  that  year. 

II. 

One  of  the  most  useful  and  worthy  citizens  of  Trenton  in  this  part 
of  its  annals  was  Isaac  Collins,  a  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends, 
and  an  enterprising  printer.  He  came  from  Burlington  to  Trenton  in 
1778,  and  resided  here  until  his  removal  to  New  York  in  1786.  His 
wife,  Rachel  Budd,  was  great-granddaughter  of  Mahlon  Stacy,  the 
original  proprietor  of  the  land.  Mr.  CoHins  was  one  of  the  active 
founders  of  the  Academy,  and  although  nine  of  his  children  were 
pupils,  he  would  not  take'  advantage  of  his  right  as  a  stockholder  to 
have  them  instructed  without  further  charge.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact 
in  the  history  of  his  family  of  fourteen  children,  that  after  the  death 
of  one  in  infancy,  there  was  no  mortality  for  the  space  of  fifty  years. 
His  eldest  daughter  (still  surviving,  1859)  was  the  wife  of  Stephen 
Grellet,  whose  singular  career  as  a  convert  from  the  faith  of  Rome  and 
the  position  of  body-guard  of  Louis  XVI.,  to  a  devoted  Quaker  minister 
and  missionary,  has  been  commemorated  in  a  printed  discourse  by  Dr. 
Van  Rensselaer.  The  first  newspaper  in  this  State,  "the  New  Jersey 
Gazette,"  was  issued  by  Mr.  Collins  at  Burlington,  December  5,  1777. 
It  was  then  transferred  to  Trenton,  and  published  there  from  February 
25,  1778,  to  November  27,  1786,  (excepting  a  suspension  of  nearly  five 
months  in  1783,)  when  it  was  discontinued.  Mr.  Collins  was  the  con- 
ductor as  well  as  proprietor  of  the  paper.  Indeed  the  title  of  editor 
had  not  then  superseded  that  of  "the  printer." 

Collins's  paper  was  established  to  counteract  the  anti-republican 
tendency  of  Rivington's  "Royal  Gazette"  in  New  York.  Governor 
Livingston  was  a  correspondent  of  the  Trenton  Gazette  as  long  as  it 
remained  in  Collins's  hands." 

The  publication  of  the  entire  Bible  was,  at  that  period,  so  adven- 
turous an  undertaking  for  the  American  press  that  it  was  necessary 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  199 

to  secure  extraordinary  encouragement  in  advance ;  and  the  first 
edition  of  the  Scriptures,  that  of  John  Aitkin,  was  recommended  to 
the  country  by  a  resolution  of  Congress.  This  was  on  September  12, 
1782,  just  five  years  after  the  report  of  a  committee  on  a  memorial 
had  stated  that  to  import  types  and  print  and  bind  thirty  thousand 
copies  would  cost  £10,272  los.,  and  therefore  recommended  the  im- 
portation of  twenty  thousand  Bibles,  which  was  adopted. 

In  1788  Isaac  Collins  issued  proposals  to  print  a  quarto  edition  of 
the  Bible  in  nine  hundred  and  eighty-four  pages,  at  the  price  of  "four 
Spanish  dollars,  one  dollar  to  be  paid  at  the  time  of  subscribing."  The 
Synod  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey  (Nov.  3,  1788,)  earnestly  recom- 
mended the  undertaking,  and  appointed  Dr.  Witherspoon,  President  S. 
S.  Smith,  and  Mr.  Armstrong,  to  concur  with  committees  of  any  other 
denominations,  or  of  our  own  Synods,  to  revise  the  sheets,  and,  if 
necessary,  to  assist  in  selecting  a  standard  edition.  This  committee 
was  authorized  to  agree  with  Mr.  Collins  to  append  Ostervald's  Notes, 
if  not  inconsistent  with  the  wishes  of  other  than  Calvinistic  subscribers. 
In  1789  the  General  Assembly  appointed  a  committee  of  sixteen  (on 
which  was  Mr.  Armstrong)  to  lay  Mr.  Collins's  proposals  before  their 
respective  Presbyteries,  and  to  recommend  that  subscriptions  be 
solicited  in  each  congregation,  and  report  the  number  to  the  next 
Assembly.     The  recommendation  was  reiterated  in  1790  and  in  1791. 

Thus  sustained,  the  quarto  edition  (five  thousand  copies)  was  pub- 
lished in  1791.^  Ostervald's  "Practical  Observations,"  which  added 
one  hundred  and  seventy  pages  of  matter,  were  furnished  to  special 
subscribers.  Collins's  Bible  was  so  carefully  revised  that  it  is  still  a 
standard.  Himself  and  his  children  read  all  the  proofs;  and  it  is 
stated  in  the  Preface  of  a  subsequent  edition,  after  mentioning  the 
names  of  several  clergymen  who  assisted  the  publisher  in  1791,  "some 
of  these  persons,  James  F.  Armstrong  in  particular,  being  near  the 
press,  assisted  also  in  reading  and  correcting  the  proof-sheets." 

As  an  instance  of  the  weight  which  the  most  incidental  acts  of  the 
Assembly  carried  at  that  early  period  of  its  existence,  I  would  allude 
to  a  letter  to  the  Moderator  of  1790  from  the  Rev.  David  Rice,  often 
called  the  Presbyterian  pioneer,  or  Apostle  of  Kentucky,  in  which  he 
states  that  having  received  from  Mr.  Armstrong,  as  Clerk  of  the  As- 
sembly, a  notification  of  the  action  in  reference  to  the  Collins  Bible, 
he  had  procured  the  calling  of  a  special  meeting  of  the  Transylvania 
Presbytery,  "that  we  might  be  in  a  capacity  to  obey  the  order  of  the 
General  Assembly."  "Such  is  our  dispersed  situation,"  that  it  was 
some  weeks  before  the  meeting  could  convene.  "After  two  days'  delib- 
eration on  the  subject,"  they  found  that  a  compliance  was  impracti- 
cable, and  on  Mr.  Rice  was  devolved  the  office  of  explaining  the  cause 
of  the  delinquency.  One  of  the  difficulties  was  that  of  sending  a  mes- 
senger to  Philadelphia  in  time  for  the  Assembly,  to  carry  the  advanced 


200  HISTORY   OF  THE 

subscription  money;    "the  want  of  horses  sufficient  for  so  long  a  jour- 
ney, or  of  other  necessaries,  laid  an  effectual  bar  in  our  way."* 

There  was  a  paper-mill  in  Trenton  before  the  time  of  the  publica- 
tion of  CoUins's  Bible.  In  December,  1788,  it  was  advertised  by  its 
proprietors,  Stacy  Potts  and  John  Reynolds,  as  "now  nearly  com- 
pleted." The  manufacturers  issued  earnest  appeals  for  rags ;  in  one 
of  their  publications,  presenting  "to  the  consideration  of  those  mothers 
who  have  children  going  to  school,  the  present  great  scarcity  of  that 
useful  article,  without  which  their  going  to  school  would  avail  them 
but  little."  In  January,  1789,  "the  Federal  Post,  or  the  Trenton  Weekly 
Mercury,"  printed  by  Quequelle  and  Wilson,  was  obliged  to  have  its 
size  reduced  "on  account  of  the  scarcity  of  demy  printing-paper." 


*  Green  and  Hazard  MSS. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

PuBwc  Occasions  in  Trenton — NotjSS. 
1789 — 1806. 

The  twenty-first  of  April,  1789,  was  a  memorable  day 
in  the  history  of  Trenton.  On  his  journey  from  Mount 
Vernon  to  New  York,  for  the  purpose  of  being  inaugurated 
as  the  first  President  of  the  United  States,  General  Wash- 
ington rode  through  the  town,  and  was  received  at  the 
Assanpink  bridge  in  the  manner  which  has  become  too 
familiar  to  require  repetition  here.*  In  the  procession  of 
matrons  who  met  the  President,  was  the  wife  of  Mr.  Arm- 
strong; and  one  of  "the  white-robed  choir"  who  sang  the 
ode  was  their  daughter,  afterwards  the  wife  of  Chief  Jus- 
tice Ewing.  Washington's  note  acknowledging  the  compli- 
ment was  first  delivered  to  Mr.  Armstrong,  and  read  to  a 
company  of  ladies  at  the  house  of  Judge  Smith.  The  auto- 
graph is  now  in  possession  of  the  family,  who  also  preserve 
the  relics  of  the  arch  or  arbor  under  which  the  illustrious 
traveler  was  received.^ 

It  was  formerly  required  that  the  names  of  all  persons 
duly  proposed  as  candidates  for  Congress  should  be  adver- 
tised by  the  authority  of  the  Governor.  In  the  list  of  1792 
is  the  name  of  Mr.  Armstrong,  but  from  what  nomination 
or  whether  with  his  consent,  I  have  no  information. 

On  the  seventeenth  June,  1795,  Mr.  Armstrong  preached 
in  Basking  Ridge,  at  the  ordination  of  Robert  Finley  and 
Holloway  W.  Hunt,  when  the  former  was  installed  minister 
of  that  congregation.^    In  August  of  that  year  we  find  Mr. 

*  Marshall's  Life  of  Washington,  vol.  v.,  ch.  3.  Sparks's  Writings  of  Washing- 
ton, vol.  xii.,  p.  150.     Irving's  Washington,  vol.  iv.,  ch.  37. 

(201) 


202  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Armstrong  taking  a  prominent  part  in  a  public  meeting  in 
reference  to  an  expression  of  popular  opinion  on  the  recent 
treaty  between  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain.  There 
were,  indeed,  few  objects  of  public  interest,  whether  political 
or  philanthropical,  with  which  his  name  was  not  found  con- 
nected.^ It  even  stands  on  the  roll  of  the  "Union  Fire  Com- 
pany" (instituted  February  8,  1747),  which  included  the 
most  respectable  citizens  among  its  working  members.  The 
few  minutes  that  are  extant  (1785-94)  show  that  the 
clergyman's  membership  was  more  than  nominal.^ 

When  the  "Trenton  Library  Company"  was  founded,  in 
May,  1797,  Mr.  Armstrong  was  immediately  among  its 
supporters  and  directors.  The  same  interest  was  evinced 
by  him  in  the  "Christian  Circulating  Library,"  established 
by  the  excellent  Daniel  Fenton,  in  181 1. 

The  third  General  Assembly  (1791)  began  to  take  meas- 
ures, through  the  Presbyteries,  for  collecting  materials  for 
a  history  of  our  Church  in  North  America.  The  New 
Brunswick  Presbytery  directed  each  of  its  pastors  to  furnish 
the  history  of  his  own  parish,  and  assigned  that  of  the 
vacant  congregations  to  committees.  Mr.  Armstrong  was 
appointed  the  collector  for  Amwell. 

In  1792  Dr.  Witherspoon  and  three  others  were  ap- 
pointed to  write  the  history  of  the  Presbytery;  in  April, 
1793  (before  the  discovery  of  the  old  minutes),  Mr.  Arm- 
strong reported  that,  "either  through  inattention  in  the  first 
ministers  and  congregations,  or  the  loss  of  records  during 
the  war,  no  documents  are  to  be  found  from  which'  to  fur- 
nish materials  respecting  the  first  formation  of  congrega- 
tions, or  the  early  settlement  of  ministers."  The  order, 
however,  was  renewed,  and  the  historical  committee  con- 
tinued.    In  1801 — 

"The  Presbyteries  of  New  Brunswick  and  Ohio  reported  that,  agree- 
ably to  order,  they  had  drawn  up  histories  of  their  respective  Pres- 
byteries, which  were  produced  and  laid  on  the  table.'" 


m 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  203 

On  the  eleventh  of  May,  1794,  Mr.  Armstrong  preached 
at  the  first  opening  of  the  new  church  at  Flemington.  In 
1797  he  was  on  the  Assembly's  delegation  to  the  General 
Association  of  Connecticut,  which  met  at  Windham,  and 
again  in  1806  to  the  same  body  at  Wethersfield. 

The  enthusiasm  of  the  Revolutionary  soldier  and  chaplain 
was  never  wanting  on  the  public  occasions  which  appealed 
to  it.  The  New  Jersey  branch  of  the  Society  of  the  Cin- 
cinnati, of  which  Mr.  Armstrong  was  a  member  (and  for  a 
time  Secretary),  usually  made  it  a  part  of  their  celebration 
of  the  Fourth  of  July  to  hear  the  Declaration  read  at  his 
Church,  in  connection  with  devotional  services.  On  the 
anniversary  of  1794,  according  to  the  Gazette  of  the  week, 
that  Society  proceeded  to  the  Church, 

"where  an  elegant  and  well-adapted  discourse  was  delivered  by  the 
Rev.  James  F.  Armstrong,  in  which  the  citizen,  the  soldier,  and  his 
brethren  of  the  Cincinnati  were  addressed  in  a  strain  truly  animated 
and  pathetic,  as  the  friends  of  freedom,  of  government,  and  of 
neutrality."* 

A  fast-day  was  observed,  by  appointment  of  President 
Adams,  in  May,  1798,  on  account  of  the  warlike  aspect  of 
our  relations  with  the  French  Republic.  The  Trenton 
pastor  appears  to  have  aroused  his  audience  on  the  occasion 
to  a  mode  of  response  not  common  in  our  churches.  Ac- 
cording to  the  newspaper  report,  the  sermon, 

"while  it  deprecated  the  miseries  of  war,  yet  unequivocally  showed 
that  our  existence  and  prosperity  as  a  nation  depended,  under  God,  on 
the  union  of  our  citizens,  and  their  full  confidence  in  the  measures 
adopted  by  our  government ;  to  which  all  the  congregation,  rising  with 
him,  said.    Amen !" 

A  few  months  later  there  was  a  still  more  vociferous 
demonstration  in  the  same  place.  I  take  the  account  of  it 
from  "The  Federalist  and  New  Jersey  Gazette"  of  July  9, 
1798: 


204  HISTORY   OF  THE 

"We  should  do  injustice  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Armstrong,  orator  of  the 
day,  [Fourth  of  July]  were  we  to  pass  in  silence  the  universal  appro- 
"bation  with  which  was  received  his  animated,  patriotic,  and  elegant 
address,  delivered  before  the  Order  of  Cincinnati,  and  the  most 
crowded  audience  we  ever  remember  to  have  seen  on  any  former 
occasion  in  this  place.  One  circumstance  demands  our  peculiar  atten- 
tion :  the  orator,  in  closing  his  address,  observed  in  substance,  that  as 
in  defense  of  the  American  Revolution  they  had  pledged  their  honors, 
their  lives  and  fortunes,  to  defend  the  American  cause,  it  might  be 
expected  that  the  Government  would  again  solicit  their  aid  to  preserve 
and  defend  her  from  tributary  vassalage ;  and  then  called  on  his 
"brethren  of  the  Society  again  to  join  him  in  pledging  their  sacred 
honors,  lives  and  fortunes  to  defend  the  government  and  laws  of  their 
country.  With  animated  firmness  and  glow  of  patriotism  the  orator 
then  pronounced,  '7  resolve  to  live  and  die  free;'  to  which  the  whole 
Society,  as  with  one  voice,  made  the  response;  and  three  animated 
cheers  heightened  the  scene  of  sublimity  and  grandeur,  far  better  to 
be    conceived    than    expressed." 

It  appears  from  another  column  that  the  Cincinnati  re- 
peated the  emphatic  sentence  after  the  orator,  and  that 
"the  whole  military  and  audience"  joined  in  the  cheers,  and 
afterwards  in  singing  the  chorus  "Hail  Columbia."'^ 

Two  days  after  this  celebration  Mr.  Armstrong,  with 
Generals  Dayton,  Bloomfield,  Beatty,  and  Giles,  as  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Cincinnati,  presented  to  President  Adams,  in 
Philadelphia,  an  address  appropriate  to  the  politics  of  the 
day.^ 

In  1799  and  several  subsequent  years  Mr.  Armistrong's 
health  was  so  much  impaired  that  he  was  obliged  to  ask  for 
supplies  for  his  two  pulpits.  There  were  intervals  in  which 
he  was  able  to  officiate,  but  during  the  remainder  of  his  life 
he  suffered  severely  from  the  rheumatic  disorder  contracted 
during  his  service  in  the  camp,  and  he  was  frequently  de- 
prived of  the  free  use  of  his  limbs.  Among  those  often  ap- 
pointed in  these  emergencies  were  President  Smith,  Dr.  John 
Woodhull,  Geo.  Spafford  WoodhuU,  Robert  Finley,  Andrew 
Hunter,  David  Comfort,  Samuel  Snowden,  Matthew  L.  Per- 
rine,  Joseph  Rue,  John  Hanna.     In  a  written  exhortation 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  205. 

sent  to  the  people  during  one  of  these  illnesses,  Mr.  Arm- 
strong, after  enumerating  some  of  the  reasons  for  their 
gratitude,  said: 

"Added  to  this,  if  variety  of  faithful  preaching  is  to  be  esteemed 
an  advantage,  you  have  enjoyed  it  in  a  signal  degree.  Though  I  am 
bold  to  say  that  no  congregations  were  less  neglected  in  the  stated 
administrations  of  the  Gospel  ordinances  while  I  was  well,  so  also 
during  the  many  years  of  sickness  and  inability  to  preach,  you  have 
enjoyed  the  abundant  labors  of  love  and  of  friendship  of  my  brethren 
in  the  ministry,  with  all  that  variety  of  faithful  preaching  with  which 
the  best-informed  mind  or  the  most  curious  ear  could  wish  to  be 
indulged.     Paul   has  planted — Apollos   watered." 

The  newspaper  of  Monday,  Diecember  30,  1799,  preserves 
another  instance  of  a  communication  made  by  Mr.  Arm- 
strong to  the  people  on  one  of  the  Sabbaths  in  which  he 
must  have  peculiarly  lamented  his  inability  to  be  in  the 
pulpit : 

"The  Rev.  Mr.  Hunter,  who  officiated  yesterday  for  Mr.  Armstrong, 
after  reading  the  President's  proclamation  respecting  the  general 
mourning  for  the  death  of  General  Washington,  gave  the  intimation, 
in  substance  as  follows,  by  the  particular  request  of  Mr.  Armstrong:" 

"  'Your  pastor  desires  me  to  say  on  the  present  mournful  occasion,, 
that  while  one  sentiment — to  mourn  the  death  and  honor  the  memory 
of  General  Washington — penetrates  every  breast,  the  proclamation 
which  you  have  just  heard  read,  he  doubts  not,  will  be  duly  attended 
to ;  yet  believing,  as  he  does,  that  he  but  anticipates  the  wishes  of 
those  for  whom  the  intimation  is  given,  Mr.  Armstrong  requests  the 
female  part  of  his  audience  in  the  city  of  Trenton  and  Maidenhead, 
as  a  testimony  of  respect  for,  and  condolence  with  Mrs.  Washington, 
to  wear  for  three  months,  during  their  attendance  on  divine  service, 
such  badges  of  mourning  as  their  discretion  may  direct.'  "^° 

Mr.  Armstrong's  ill  health  now  often  interrupted  his 
habitual  punctuality  at  the  church  courts ;  but  he  continued 
to  take  an  active  part  in  their  work  whenever  present.  He 
was  one  of  a  committee  that  endeavored  in  vain  from  1803 
to  18 12,  to  obtain  a  charter  of  incorporation  for  the  Pres- 
bytery— a  measure  that  was  desirable  in  consequence  of  two- 


2o6  HISTORY   OF   THE 

legacies  (Miller's  and  Patterson's)  that  had  been  left  to  the 
Education  Fund.^^  In  1805  he  was  appointed  to  receive 
from  the  Assembly's  Committee  of  Missions  the  Presby- 
tery's share  of  certain  books  and  tracts  for  distribution  on 
the  seaboard  of  the  State,  and  in  the  counties  of  Sussex, 
Morris,  and  Hunterdon.  In  June,  1804,  he  preached  at  the 
installation  of  the  Rev.  Henry  Kollock  in  Princeton,  and  in 
18 10  presided  at  the  ordination  and  installation  of  the  Rev. 
William  C.  Schenck  in  the  same  church.  He  sat  as  a  Com- 
missioner in  most  of  the  'General  Assemblies  from  the  first 
in  1789  to  that  of  18 15.  In  1804  he  was  elected  to  the 
chair  of  Moderator,  and,  according  to  rule,  opened  the 
sessions  of  the  following  year  with  a  sermon.  The  text  was 
John  14:  16.  He  also'  preached  the  sermon  at  the  opening 
of  the  Assembly  of  1806,  in  consequence  of  the  absence  of 
Dr.  Richards,  the  last  Moderator.  On  that  occasion  his 
text  was  John  3 :  16,  17. 

Mr.  Armstrong  was  elected  a  Trustee  of  the  College  of 
New  Jersey  in  1799,  and  Dr.  Miller  observed  at  his  funeral 
that,  "few  of  the  members  of  that  Board,  as  long  as  he  en- 
jpyed  a  tolerable  share  of  health,  were  more  punctual  in 
their  attendance  on  its  meetings,  or  more  ardent  in  their  zeal 
for  the  interests  of  the  institution." 

NOTES. 

I. 

A  public  commemoration  of  the  death  of  Washington  was  observed 
in  Trenton  on  the  fourteenth  January,  1800.  By  invitation  of  the 
Governor  and  Mayor,  with  the  Rev.  Messrs.  Hunter,  Waddell,  and 
Armstrong,  on  behalf  of  the  citizens,  President  Smith  delivered  the 
oration,  and  it  was  published.  The  late  Dr.  Johnston,  of  Newburgh, 
who  was  then  in  college,  relates  in  his  Autobiography  (edited  by  Dr. 
Carnahan,  1856)  that  a  large  number  of  students  walked  from  Prince- 
ton to  hear  the  oration.  A  procession  was  formed  opposite  the  Epis- 
copal Church,  from  which  a  bier  was  carried,  preceded  by  the  clergy, 
and  all  passed  to  the  State  House,  where  the  ceremonies  were  per- 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  207 

iormed.  At  a  certain  stanza  in  one  of  the  elegiac  songs,  "eight  beau- 
tiful girls,  of  about  ten  years  of  age,  dressed  in  white  robes  and  black 
sashes,  with  baskets  on  their  arms  filled  with  sprigs  of  cypress,  rose 
from  behind  the  speaker's  seat,"  and  strewed  the  cypress  on  the  mock 
coffin. 

II. 

Some  idea  of  the  appearance  and  condition  of  Trenton  at  the  date 
of  this  chapter  may  be  formed  from  the  observations  of  passing  trav- 
elers. 

Brissot,  the  Girondist,  who  died  by  the  guillotine  in  1793,  was  here 
in  1788.  "The  taverns,"  he  writes,  "are  much  dearer  on  this  road 
than  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut.  I  paid  at  Trenton  for  a  dinner 
2s.  6d.  money  of  Pennsylvania.  We  passed  the  ferry  from  Trenton 
at  seven  in  the  morning.  The  Delaware,  which  separates  Pennsylvania 
from  New  Jersey,  is  a  superb  river.  The  prospect  from  the  middle 
of  the  river  is  charming.  On  the  right  you  see  mills  and  manufac- 
tories ;  on  the  left  two  charming  little  towns  which  overlook  the 
water.  The  borders  of  this  river  are  still  in  their  wild  state.  In  the 
forests  which  cover  them  there  are  some  enormous  trees.  There  are 
likewise  some  houses,  but  they  are  not  equal,  in  point  of  simple  ele- 
gance, to  those  of  Massachusetts."* 

In  1794  an  English  tourist  says  of  our  town :  "The  houses  join 
each  other,  and  form  regular  streets,  very  much  like  some  of  the 
small  towns  in  Devonshire.  The  town  has  a  very  good  market,  which 
is  well  supplied  with  butcher's  meat,  fish,  and  poultry.  Many  good 
shops  are  to  be  seen  there,  in  general  with  seats  on  each  side  the 
entrance,  and  a  step  or  two  up  into  each  house."  The  market  prices 
on  the  day  of  this  visit  were,  beef  Sd.,  mutton  4^.,  veal  4.d.  "This 
was  dearer  than  common  on  two  accounts :  the  great  quantity  lately 
bought  up  for  exportation  upon  taking  off  the  embargo,  and  the  As- 
sembly of  the  State  being  then  sitting  at  Trenton.  Land  here  sells, 
of  the  best  kind,  at  about  ten  pounds  [twenty-seven  dollars]  an 
acre."t 

The  Duke  de  la  Rochefoucault,  about  the  same  time,  makes  this 
entry  in  his  journal:  "About  a  quarter  of  a  mile  beyond  Trenton  is 
the  passage  over  the  Delaware  by  a  ferry,  which,  though  ten  stage- 
coaches daily  pass  in  it,  is  such  that  it  would  be  reckoned  a  very  bad 
ferry  in  Europe.  On  the  farther  side  of  the  river  the  retrospect  to 
Trenton  is,  in  a  considerable  degree,  pleasing.  The  ground  between 
that  town  and  the  Delaware  is  smooth,  sloping,  decorated  with  the 
flowers  and  verdure  of  a  fine  meadow.     In  the  environs  of  the  town, 


*  Nouveau  Voyage  dans  les  Etats-unis,  fait  en  1788.  J.  P.  Brissot  de  Warville. 
i.  148. 

t  Journal  of  an  Excursion  to  the  United  States  in  the  summer  of  1794,  by 
Henry  Wansey,  F.A.S.     A  Wiltshire  clothier. 


2o8  HISTORY   OF  THE 

too,  are  a  number  of  handsome  villas  which  greatly  enrich  the  land- 
scape.'"' 

The  celebrated  French  naturalist,  F.  A.  Michaux,  son  of  A.  Michaux, 
sent  over  by  Louis  XVI.  for  botanical  research,  passing  in  1802,  gives 
us  this  paragraph :  "Among  the  other  small  towns  by  the  roadside^ 
Trenton  seemed  worthy  of  attention.  Its  situation  upon  the  Delaware, 
the  beautiful  tract  of  country  that  surrounds  it,  must  render  it  a 
most  delightful  place  of  abode."" 

The  situation  of  the  town  seems  to  have  something  that  takes  the 
French  eye.  In  1805  General  Moreau  established  his  residence  on 
the  opposite  bank  of  the  river,  and  Joseph  Bonaparte  was  disap- 
pointed in  the  purchase  of  a  site  adjoining  (now  in)  the  town,  before 
he  settled  a  few  miles  below."  It  may  have  been  the  reputation  of 
the  river  scenery  that  gave  the  hint  to  the  wits  of  Salmagundi,  in 
the  journal  of  an  imaginary  traveler:  "Trenton — built  above  the 
head  of  navigation,  to  encourage  commerce — capital  of  the  State — 
only  wants  a  castle,  a  bay,  a  mountain,  a  sea,  and  a  volcano,  to  bear  a 
strong  resemblance  to  the  bay  of  Naples."* 

An  Englishman  found  nothing  to  remark  of  Trenton  in  1805,  than 
an  exempHfication  of  what  he  calls  the  American  "predilection  for 
wearing  boots."  "At  Trenton  I  was  entertained  with  the  sight  of  a 
company  of  journeymen  tailors,  at  the  work-board,  all  booted  as  if 
ready  for  mounting  a  horse."t 

An  Italian  savant,  crossing  the  State,  takes  time  only  to  say: 
"Although  Trentown  is  not  very  large,  nor  very  populous,  it  is  to  be 
regarded  as  the  capital,  where  the  Council  and  the  Assembly  con- 
vene."t 

III. 

In  the  Trenton  newspaper  of  July,  1799,  is  an  advertisement  by 
Mr.  Armstrong,  relative  to  a  suit  in  the  English  courts,  the  latest 
report  of  the  progress  of  which  is  given  as  follows  in  the  London  papers^ 
of  May,  1856: 

Equity  Court,  London,  May  7. 
Before  Vice-Chancellor  Kindersly. 

PARKINSON    vs.    REYNOLDS. 

"About  the  middle  of  last  century  there  lived  in  the  north  of  Ireland 
a  family  of  the  name  of  Rutherford.  Between  the  sons  a  quarrel 
arose,   and   the   father,    conceiving  that   the   younger,   Robert,    was   ia 

*  Salmagundi,  by  Irving,  Paulding,  etc.      1807. 

t  Travels  in  some  parts  of  North  America  in  1804-6,  by  Robert  Sutcliff. 

t  Viaggio  negli  Stati  Uniti,   1785-7.     Da  L,uigi  Castiglioni,  Milan,   1790. 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  209 

fault,  chastised  him.  Robert  Rutherford  thereupon  quitted  his  father's 
house,  and  shortly  afterwards  enlisted  in  Ligonier's  troop  of  Black 
Horse.  After  a  time  he  came  to  England,  but  he  soon  quitted  the 
Kingdom  and  settled  at  the  village  of  Trenton,  in  the  United  States, 
where  he  opened  a  tavern,  which  he  called  'The  Ligonier  or  Black 
Horse.'  In  the  course  of  his  migrations  he  had  married,  and  the  year 
1770  found  him  settled  at  Trenton,  at  the  'Black  Horse,'  with  a  family 
consisting  of  one  son  and  four  daughters.  About  that  period  there 
one  day  drove  up  to  the  tavern,  in  a  carriage  and  four,  an  English 
officer,  by  name  Colonel  Fortescue.  Colonel  Fortescue  dined  at  the 
tavern,  and  after  dinner  had  a  conversation  in  private  with  one  of 
Rutherford's  daughters.  Within  two  hours  after  this  conversation 
Frances  Mary  Rutherford  had,  notwithstanding  her  sister's  entreaties, 
quitted  her  father's  house  in  company  with  Colonel  Fortescue.  With 
him  she  went  to  Paris,  where  after  a  few  years  he  died,  leaving  her,  it 
is  supposed,  a  considerable  sum  of  money.  On  his  death  she  quitted 
Paris  and  came  to  England;  and  here  she  married  a  gentleman  of 
considerable  property,  named  Shard.  In  1798  Mrs.  Shard  had  a  great 
desire  to  discover  what  had  become  of  her  father's  family,  whom  she 
had  quitted  nearly  thirty  years  previously,  and  through  her  confidential 
solicitor  inquiries  were  made  of  Mr.  Armstrong,  the  Presbyterian 
minister  at  Trenton.  The  inquiries  were  fruitless — her  brother  and 
all  her  sisters  were  dead ;  it  appeared  hopeless  to  expect  to  find  a 
Rutherford,  and  the  matter  was  dropped.^^  Mr.  Shard  died  in  the  year 
1806,  and  in  1819  Mrs.  Shard  died  a  widow,  childless  and  intestate. 
No  next  of  kin  appearing,  the  Crown  took  possession  of  the  property. 
In  1823  an  attempt  was  made  to  set  up  a  document  as  the  will  of  Mrs. 
Shard,  but  it  was  declared  a  forgery.  In  1846  the  present  plaintiff 
made  a  claim  to  the  property,  setting  up  that  claim  through  a  Mrs. 
Davies,  who  was  alleged  to  be  first  cousin  of  the  deceased.  It  turned 
out  that  Mrs.  Davies  was  not  first  cousin ;  but  further  evidence  having 
been  procured,  the  claim  was  again  made,  through  the  same  Mrs. 
Davies,  who  was  now  alleged  to  be  a  second  cousin  of  the  deceased. 
The  Vice-Chancellor  now  delivered  judgment,  and  came  to  the  con- 
clusion that  as  between  the  Crown  and  the  claimant  the  latter  made 
out  a  case.  It  was  sufficiently  proved  that  Mrs.  Davies  was  a  second 
cousin  of  the  deceased  Mrs.  Shard ;  but  as  it  did  not  follow  that 
there  might  not  be  a  still  nearer  relative  than  the  claimant  in  existence, 
and  as  the  evidence  on  this  latter  point  was  not  conclusive,  the  matter 
must  go  back  to  chambers  for  further  inquiries." 

IV. 

Public  morals  were  in  such  a  low  state  in  Trenton  in  1804,  that  on 
the  third  of  August  a  public  meeting  was  held  to  consider  measures 
for  reform.     Intemperance,  obscenity,  noisy  assemblages  on  the  Lord's 
14    PRES 


210  HISTORY   OF   THE 

day,  brawling,  fighting,  and  throwing  stones  in  the  streets  were  named 
among  the  signs  of  disorder.  The  causes  assigned  were  the  unlicensed 
selling  of  spirituous  liquors,  especially  on  Sunday,  and  "the  relaxa- 
tion of  discipline  in  family  government."  In  August,  1806,  Stacy 
Potts,  the  Mayor,  publicly  solicits  Christians  of  all  denominations, 
who  as  parents,  guardians,  masters  or  mistresses  have  charge  of  the 
young,  to  restrain  them  from  vice  and  temptation.  The  same  officer 
made  a  similar  appeal  to  "the  serious  and  prudent  inhabitants  of 
Trenton,"  in  April,  1810,  and  trusts  that  the  public  authorities  may  be 
so  assisted  by  the  citizens  "that  religious  people  abroad  may  no  longer 
be  deterred  from  placing  their  children  apprentices  in  this  city,  lest 
they  become  contaminated  with  the  vicious  habits  which  have  too 
much  prevailed  among  the  rising  generation  in  the  city  of  Trenton." 


V. 

Half  a  century  ago,  as  now,  political  animosity  was  ready  to  take 
any  handle  to  create  prejudice  against  an  opponent.  Thomas  Paine 
was  a  strong  partisan  of  Jefferson."  Having  rode  up  (Feb.  28,  1803) 
from  his  residence  in  Bordentown  to  Trenton,  to  take  the  stage  for 
New  York,  the  proprietors  of  both  the  stage  offices,  being  Federalists, 
refused  with  strong  oaths  to  give  a  seat  to  an  infidel.  When  he  set 
out  in  his  own  chaise,  accompanied  by  Col.  Kirkbride,  a  mob  sur- 
rounded him  with  insulting  music,  and  he  had  difficulty  in  getting  out 
of  town.  The  author  of  "Common-sense"  showed  neither  fear  nor 
anger,  and  "calmly  observed  that  such  conduct  had  no  tendency  to 
hurt  his  feelings  or  injure  his  fame,  but  rather  gratified  the  one  and 
contributed  to  the  other." 

Mr.  Lyell,  the  geologist,  gives  a  better  account  of  the  temper  of 
Trenton  politicians  as  he  saw  it  in  the  processions  of  October,  1841. 
(Travels,  1841-2,  vol.  i,  p.  82.) 

VI. 

The  incidental  reference  to  Mrs.  Washington  on  p.  205,  may  recall 
a  record  in  the  Trenton  newspaper  of  December  29,  1779:  "Yesterday 
Mrs.  Washington  passed  through  this  town  on  her  way  from  Vir- 
ginia to  Head  Quarters  at  Morris-Town;  when  the  Virginia  troops 
present  (induced  through  respect)  formed  and  received  her  as  she 
passed,  in  a  becoming  manner."" 

VII. 

I  may  add,  as  one  of  the  illustrations  of  those  times,  a  translation  of  a 
letter  in  French  which  I  find  in  Mr.  Armstrong's  papers.     The  writer 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  211 

was  the  widow  of  one  of  the  several  French-Canadian  Roman  Catholic 
families  who  found  their  way  to  Trenton  as  refugees  from  the  bar- 
barities of  the  revolution  in  St.  Domingo.  On  one  of  the  tablets  in 
the  church  vestibule  which  contain  the  names  of  persons  whose  graves 
are  covered  by  the  present  edifice,  is  the  line  "Simeon  Worlock,  July, 
1792,  39  yr."  He  is  said  to  have  resided  in  the  Kingsbury  mansion 
mentioned  on  p.  46. 

Philadelphia,  November  3,   1792. 

"Sir:  I  leave  to-morrow  for  St.  Domingo  without  having  the  satis- 
faction of  knowing  that  the  marble  which  I  caused  to  be  made  is  placed 
on  the  grave  of  my  husband.  I  have  earnestly  impressed  on  a  mer- 
chant of  this  city  named  Wachsmath  to  spare  no  pains  to  have  it  fin- 
ished as  soon  as  possible.  I  rely  on  his  promise  to  give  every  atten- 
tion, but,  sir,  in  addition  to  all  the  obligations  I  have  already  incurred, 
may  I  venture  to  beg  you  to  assist  me  in  a  matter  so  essential  to  my 
repose,  viz.,  when  you  have  received  the  marble  in  which  he  is  to  be 
placed,  to  write  to  me  to  inform  me.  I  shall  not  be  at  ease  until  I  am 
sure  that  no  strange  dust  shall  mingle  with  that  of  the  adored  hus- 
band whom  I  shall  lament  all  my  life.  Remember,  sir,  your  promise 
that  whilst  you  live  these  dear  remains  shall  be  respected.  I  trust  and 
conjure  you  not  to  forget  it,  and  to  join  your  prayers  with  mine  for 
the  eternal  happiness  of  my  poor  friend  [mon  malheureux  ami]  ! 

"Accept,  sir,  for  Mrs.  Armstrong,  also  the  assurance  of  my  remem- 
brance and  my  mother's-.  Miss  Gobert,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sigoigne,  Adele 
and  Charles  are  well,  and  send  their  love  to  your  dear  children. 

"Farewell,  sir,  believe  the  esteem  and  perfect  consideration  with 
which  all  my  life  I  shall  remain  your  very  humble  servant. 

"M.  Worlock. 

"My  address  is  Mme.  Mime.  Worlock,  Cape  Francais." 


VIII. 

The  Rev.  William  Frazer,  rector  of  the  St.  Michael's  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  from  1788  to  1795,  kept  a  boys'  school  in  Trenton 
for  a  considerable  time.  To  this  school  the  sons  of  many  prominent 
families  of  Burlington,  Philadelphia,  &c.,  were  sent.  Rev.  Mr.  Frazer, 
and  after  him  his  widow,  kept  a  diary  of  daily  events,  in  which  may 
be  found  mention  of  very  many  names,  incidents  and  occurrences 
which  illustrate  vividly  the  social  life  of  Trenton  during  that  period. 

The  Rev.  William  Frazer  was  rector  or  missionary  of  the  Episcopal 
Church  in  Amwell,  and  on  July  2,  1787,  was  engaged  by  the  wardens 
and  vestry  of  St.  Michael's  Church  in  Trenton  "to  preach  at  said 
church  every  other  Sunday,  and  agreed  to  give  him  the  rent  of  the 
pews  in  said  church,  to  be  collected  and  paid  quarterly."     On  the  fol- 


212       HISTORY   OF   FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH. 

lowing  8th  of  December,  1788,  Mr.  Frazer  accepted  the  position  and 
was  formally  inducted,  the  connection  of  Mr.  Armstrong  with  the 
Presbyterian  Church  beginning  about  the  same  time,  and  the  two  con- 
gregations, as  well  as  their  respective  pastors  and  families,  maintain- 
ing much  of  religious  as  Well  as  social  fellowship — greatly  promoted 
by  the  fact  that  for  many  years  both  ministers  were  absent  from 
Trenton  at  other  settlements,  on  alternate  Sabbaths,  and  the  people 
were  much  in  the  habit  of  worshipping  together.  Entries  in  the  diary 
like  the  following  serve  to  show  something  of  the  intercourse : 

February  3,  1788. — Went  to  Trenton  in  two  and  a  half  hours.  Day 
before  attempted  it,  but  found  it  too  bad  and  turned  back. 

February  23  and  24. — Mr.  Armstrong  here.     (At  Amwell.) 

December  8.— Mr.  F.  inducted  into  St.  Michael's  Church,  Trenton. 

April  3,  1790. — Mr.  Armstrong  called  here. 

September  16,  1792. —  (In  Mrs.  F.'s  hand,  Mr.  F.  being  absent.) 
Went  to  Mr.  Armstrong's  church. 

September  17. — Drank  tea  at  Mr.  Armstrong's  in  company  with  Mrs. 
Barton  and  several  other  ladies. 

September  28. — Went  to  Presbyterian  meeting. 

December  13. — Mr.  and  Mrs.  Armstrong,  Woodruff,  Lowrey,  DeCou, 
Rogers,  Reed,  drank  tea. 

December  30. — Heard  Mr.  Armstrong  preach  a  Thanksgiving  sermon. 

March  20,  1794. —  (Mr.  F.)  Attended  the  Presbyterian  meeting  in 
the  morning  and  preached  in  the  church  in  the  afternoon  to  a  crowded 
audience. 

January  i,  1795. — Went  to  the  Presbyterian  meeting. 

January  11. — Went  to  Mr.  Armstrong's  meeting  in  afternoon. 

I  have  a  sermon  of  Rev.  Mr.  Frazer's  on  Affliction,  Job  5:6,  7, 
with  the  following  note  by  his  widow : 

"The  last  sermon  my  dearest  and  ever  beloved  Mr.  Frazer  preached 
in  his  church  in  Trenton  in  the  forenoon  of  the  28th  of  June,  Samuel 
Stockton,  Esq.,  being  buried  in  the  afternoon  and  a  sermon  preached 
on  the  solemn  occasion  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Armstrong. 

"This  sermon  was  the  first  object  that  presented  itself  to  my  view 
as  it  lay  on  my  dear  husband's  desk  in  his  study,  the  first  time  I 
entered  that  room  after  his  death ;  and  which  I  could  not  help  thinking 
was  put  there  for  my  comfort,  as  it  afforded  me  great  consolation,  as 
it  appeared  to  me  that  although  he  was  taken  from  me,  he  yet  spoke 
comfort  to  my  afflicted  heart.  R.  F." 

The  sermon  was  preached  in  St.  Michael's  Episcopal  Church  on 
June  28,  1795. — See  S.  D.  Alexander's  "Princeton  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century,"  p.  270. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 
The  New  Brick  Church — Notes. 

1804 — 1806. 

The  Trenton  congregation,  which  had  so  long  felt 
obliged  to  associate  itself  with  one  or  other  of  its  neighbors 
for  the  support  of  a  pastor,  at  length  found  itself  able  to 
assume  an  independent  position.  Accordin,g  to  the  under- 
standing which  was  had  with  the  Maidenhead  Church,  when 
Mr.  Annstrong  divided  his  care  between  it  and  Trenton, 
he  became  the  exclusive  pastor  of  the  latter  in  October, 
1806.  About  the  same  tim^e  that  congregation  accomplished 
the  erection  of  a  new  house  of  worship. 

The  stone  building  then  in  use  was  nearly  eighty  years 
old.  The  want  of  a  better  edifice  had  long  been  felt.  In 
1769  there  was  a  subscriptioon  for  repairs.  It  was  probably 
with  a  view  to  rebuilding  or  enlargement  that  the  Trustees, 
in  1773,  proposed  to  the  vestry  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
a  joint  application  to  the  Legislature  for  a  lottery.  The 
vestry  appointed  a  committee  of  conference  on  the  lottery, 
"and  to  be  managers  thereof,"*  but  the  project  seems  to 
have  dropped  until  1791  (Nov.  18-23)  when  "an  act  to 
empower  the  Trustees  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and 
the  ministers,  wardens  and  vestry  of  the  Episcopal  Church 
in  Trenton  to  have  a  lottery  for  the  purpose  therein 
noticed,"  after  passing  the  Council  and  being  ordered  to 
a  third  reading  in  the  House,  was  lost.  Another  experi- 
ment in  this  line  was  attempted  in  December,  1793,  when 
the  Trustees  appointed  a  committee  to  unite  with  the  Epis- 


Minutes  of  Vestry  of  St.  Michael's,  February  28,   1773. 

(213) 


214  HISTORY   OF   THE 

copalians  in  a  lottery  for  the  benefit  of  the  tv/o^  congrega- 
tions; but  nothing  further  is  said  on  the  subject.  However 
unequivocal  the  imimorality  of  such  an  expedient  may  seem 
to  us,  the  lottery  has  been  a  frequent  resource  of  churches, 
as  well  as  other  institutions,  even  less  than  sixty  years  ago. 
At  the  same  meeting  in  which  the  last  lottery  suggestion 
was  made,  Maskell  Ewing  and  Alexander  Chambers  were 
appointed  "to  take  about  a  subscription  p^per  for  the  pur- 
pose of  raising  money  to  build  a  new  Presbyterian  Church 
in  Trenton."  In  1796  the  price  of  building  materials  was 
so  high  that  the  design  was  abandoned.  It  was  not  until 
May,  1804,  that  the  successful  measures  were  taken.  The 
building  was  now  represented  to  be  "in  so  ruinous  a  state 
that  it  can  not  long  continue  to  accommodate  those  who 
worship  there,  in  a  comfortable  manner."  The  subscription 
was  headed  by  four  names  giving  two  hundred  dollars 
each.  By  the  twenty-fourth  August  nearly  four  thousand 
dollars  had  been  subscribed,  and  it  was  determined  to  build 
in  the  ensuing  spring.  Moore  Furma.n  and  Aaron  D. 
Woodruff  were  appointed  to  obtain  a  plan;  Benj.  Smith, 
John  Chambers  and  Peter  Gordon  were  the  Building  Com- 
mittee or  "Managers."  It  was  determined  that  the  size 
should  be  forty-eight  by  sixty  feet,  in  the  clear ;  with  a  pro- 
jection or  tower  in  front  of  four  by  ten,  with  a  cupola. 
The  four  largest  contributors  were  Abraham  Hunt,  Benj. 
Smith,  Alex.  Chambers  and  Moore  Furman. 

The  corner-stone  was  laid  April  15,  1805;  the  old  house 
having  been  first  taken  down.  The  newspaper  of  the  time 
has  this  report: 

"On  the  fifteenth  instant  were  laid  the  corner-stones  of  the  founda- 
tion of  a  new  Presbyterian  Church  in  this  city.  The  Elders,  Trustees,, 
and  Managers  of  the  building,  with  a  respectable  number  of  the  citi- 
zens attending,  an  appropriate  prayer  was  made  by  the  Rev.  Mr.  Arm- 
strong, minister  of  the  congregation.  The  scene  was  solemn,  impres- 
sive, and  affecting.  A  plate  of  copper,  inscribed  April,  1805,  with  the 
minister's  name,  was  laid  between  two  large  stones  at  the  foundation 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  215 

of  the  southeast  corner.  The  foundation,  though  much  more  extensive, 
is  laid  nearly  on  the  site  of  the  old  church,  which  stood  about  eighty 
years."* 

While  the  building  was  in  progress,  Mr.  Armstrong 
preached  on  every  alternate  Sabbath  in  the  Episcopal 
Church,  the  rector  of  which  (Dr.  Waddell)  had  a  second 
charge  at  Bristol,  as  Mr.  Armistrong  had  at  Maidenhead. 

The  new  church  was  opened  for  its  sacred  uses  August 
17,  1806.  The  pastor  conducted  the  services  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  President  S.  S.  Smith  in  the  afternoon. - 

The  pastor  preached  from'  part  of  Solomon's  prayer  at 
the  dedication  of  the  temple:  i  Kings  8:22,  23,  27-30. 
At  the  next  public  service  in  which  he  officiated,  he  preached 
on  the  conduct  becoming  worshippers  in  the  house  of  God, 
from  Hebrews  10:25  and  Job  13:  11.  This  subject  was 
pursued  in  a  third  discourse  on  public  worship  as  a  duty  to 
God,  to  society,  to  ourselves.  For  the  services  of  the  dedi- 
cation, Mr.  Armstrong  prepared  a  prayer;  and  in  the  be- 
lief that  on  its  own  account,  as  well  as  for  its  historical 
associations,  it  will  be  read  with  interest  and  benefit  by 
the  people  who  worship  in  a  house,  which,  though  not  the 
same  as  the  one  then  dedicated,  was  included  in  the  refer- 
ences of  its  supplications,  I  here  insert  it : 

PRAYER. 

"Holy,  holy,  holy  Lord  God  Almighty.  There  is  no  God  like  thee 
in  heaven  above,  or  on  earth  beneath,  who  keepest  covenant  with  thy 
servants  that  walk  before  thee  with  all  their  heart.  Thou  art  our 
God,  and  we  would  praise  thee ;  our  father's  God,  and  we  would  exalt 
thee. 

"Thou  art  the  God  who  hearest  prayer.  Where  shall  we  go  but  to 
thee,  who  art  the  way,  the  truth,  and  the  life? 

"We  adore  thee  for  all  the  mercies  and  benefits  which  thou  hast 
conferred  on  us  through  our  lives.  But  especially  we  adore  thee  for 
the  everlasting  Gospel,  and  those  gracious  privileges  to  which  we  are 
called  in  thy  Church  on  earth,  and  in  thy  Church  in  heaven.  We 
adore  thee  that  thy  Church  is  founded  on  the  rock  Christ  Jesus,  and 
that  the  gates  of  hell  shall  never  be  able  to  prevail  against  it.     We 


2i6  HISTORY   OF   THE 

adore  thee  for  the  promise  of  thy  presence  to  thy  Church  and  people, 
that  where  two  or  three  are  met  together  in  thy  name,  thou  wilt  be 
with  them  to  bless  them.  We  adore  thee,  O  Lord,  that  when  the  place 
where  our  fathers  had  long  worshipped  was  decaying  with  age,  and 
the  congregation  of  thy  people  needed  room  and  accommodation  in 
thy  house,  thou  didst  put  it  into  our  hearts  to  build  a  house  for  thy 
worship  and  service,  and  where  thy  people  may  meet  and  enjoy  thy 
presence.  We  adore  thee  that  thou  hast  permitted  us  to  meet  to  set 
it  apart,  and  dedicate  it  to  the  Lord  our  God  by  preaching,  prayer,  and 
praise. 

"And  now,  O  Lord,  our  God,  we  thus  offer  this  house  to  thee;  that 
thy  people  may  here  meet  for  purposes  of  reading,  preaching,  and  hear- 
ing thy  word;  of  prayer  and  praise;  of  fasting  and  thanksgiving;  of 
the  administration  of  baptism  and  the  Lord's  supper,  agreeably  to  the 
word  of  God  and  the  constitution  of  our  Church. 

"And  now,  O  Lord,  make  this  house  continue  to  be  the  habitation 
of  the  God  of  Jacob  forever;  a  place  where  prayer  shall  be  ever  made 
to  thee,  and  where  Gospel  worship  shall  be  fixed  and  stated  as  long 
as  it  shall  last  for  this  purpose ;  and  that  there  never  may  fail  a  people 
and  a  congregation  to  worship  thee  in  this  place  throughout  all  genera- 
tions. 

"We  pray  that  thou  wilt  be  pleased  to  give  success  to  the  labors  of 
the  ministers  of  the  Gospel  in  this  place ;  accompanying  the  means 
of  grace  with  divine  power  and  energy,  making  the  administration  of 
the  Gospel  effectual  to  convince  and  convert,  establish  and  sanctify  thy 
people. 

"And  now,  O  Lord,  our  God,  make  it  good  for  us  that  we  have  built 
a  house  for  thy  worship.  But  as  the  most  sumptuous  works  of  our 
hands  can  not  communicate  any  holiness  to  the  worshipper,  make  it 
good  for  us  to  draw  near  to  God  in  the  assembling  of  ourselves  to- 
gether at  all  commanded,  fixed,  and  proper  times  in  this  place.  Enable 
us,  thy  people  of  this  congregation,  and  all  who  may  worship  with  us 
in  this  place,  collectively  and  individually,  to  dedicate  ourselves  unto 
the  Lord;  to  present  our  souls,  and  our  bodies,  and  our  spirits  unto 
the  Lord  as  living  sacrifices,  holy  and  acceptable,  which  is  our  reason- 
able service ;  to  concentrate  our  time,  our  talents,  our  privileges,  and 
opportunities,  with  all  we  have  and  are,  to  thy  service;  that  each  of 
us,  and  each  of  our  families,  with  all  who  are  near  and  dear  to  us, 
may  prepare  an  habitation  in  our  hearts  and  souls  for  God,  and  that 
our  bodies  may  be  the  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"And  we  do  most  earnestly  pray  that  all  our  offenses  may  be  blotted 
out ;  that  we  may  be  washed  in  the  blood  of  Christ ;  that  the  vows 
and  offerings,  the  prayers  and  the  praises  which  we  and  our  posterity 
offer  up  now,  and  in  all  future  time,  may  be  accepted  through  the 
merits  and  intercession  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ,  and 
made  effectual  for  our  and  their  salvation. 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  217 

"Let  thy  grace  and  thy  Spirit,  O  Lord  our  God,  be  with  us  to  direct, 
assist,  and  strengthen  us  in  all  the  prayers  and  supplications  that  we 
now  and  in  future  may  ofifer  in  this  place.  Be  graciously  pleased  to 
vouchsafe  us  thy  presence  herein  continually.  Hearken,  O  Lord,  to 
the  prayers  and  supplications  of  me  thy  servant,  and  of  these  thy  people, 
in  all  times  and  in  all  circumstances,  and  in  all  places  where  we  may 
pray  in,  or  as  towards  this  place ;  and  when  thou  hearest  answer  us 
in  mercy. 

"If  we  sin — for  no  man  liveth  and  sinneth  not — and  turn  and  repent, 
hear  and  forgive  our  sins,  O  Lord ! 

"If  the  love  of  thy  people  wax  cold ;  if  our  grace  languish,  faint, 
and  be  ready  to  expire,  give  renewed  faith,  grace,  and  love. 

"Hear  us,  O  Lord,  if  we  pray  to  be  delivered  from  drought,  famine, 
war,  pestilence,  disease,  or  death. 

"Hear  us,  O  Lord,  if  we  pray  to  be  delivered  from  blasting,  mildew, 
and  whatsoever  might  threaten  to  prevent  or  destroy  the  harvest. 

"Hear  us,  O  Lord,  when  we  pray  for  all  schools,  colleges,  and  semi- 
naries of  learning; 

"For  our  nation  and  country  ; 
"For  all  who  bear  rule  and  authority  over  us ; 
"For  peace  and  prosperity ; 

"For  all  missionaries  and  missionary  labors  throughout  the  world; 
that  the  Jews  may  be  gathered,  and  the  fullness  of  the  Gentiles  may 
come  in;  that  the  land  of  Ethiopia  and  the  heathen  may  be  given  for 
an  inheritance,  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  for  a  possession 
to  Christ  Jesus. 

"Hear,  O  Lord,  and  hasten  the  time  when  all  the  families  of  the 
earth  shall  be  blessed  in  Christ  our  Lord,  and  when  his  knowledge 
and  his  righteousness  shall  cover  the  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea. 
"Now,  therefore,  arise,  O  Lord  God,  into  Thy  resting  place,  Thou 
and  the  ark  of  Thy  strength.  Let  Thy  priests,  O  Lord,  be  clothed 
with  righteousness,  the  ministers  of  Thy  religion  with  salvation.  Let 
Thy  saints  shout  for  joy,  and  Thy  people  rejoice  in  goodness. 

"Blessed  be  the  Lord  God — Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  As  He 
was  with  our  fathers,  so  let  Him  be  with  us.  Let  Him  not  leave  us 
nor  forsake  us;  and  incline  our  hearts  to  do  all  things  according  to 
His  holy  will. 

"Pray    for   the   peace   of    Jerusalem;    peace   be    within   these    walls, 
prosperity  within  this  place.     For  my  brethren  and  companions'  sakes 
I  will  now  say,  peace  be  within  thee.     Because  of  the  house  of  the 
Lord  our  God,  I  will  seek  thy  good. 
"The  Lord  bless  thee  and  keep  thee ! 

"The  Lord  make  His  face  to  shine  upon  thee,  and  be  gracious  unto 
thee. 

"The  Lord  lift  up  his  countenance  upon  thee,  and  give  thee  peace. 
"And  in  testimony  of  the  sincerity  of  our  desires,  and  in  humble 
hope  of  being  heard,  let  all  the  people  say.  Amen." 


2i8  HISTORY   OF  THE 

A  sketch  of  the  new  Church  was  made  from  memory, 
by  the  late  Dr.  F.  A.  Ewing,  who  wrote  of  it : 

"Elevation  seemed  to  be  the  great  object  to  be  attained,  and  so  the 
walls  were  carried  up  to  a  height  which  would  now  be  thought  exces- 
sive. Its  galleries  were  supported  on  lofty  columns,  and  in  conse- 
quence its  pulpit  was  so  high  as  sometimes  to  threaten  dizziness  to 
the  preacher's  head.  Above  the  gallery  the  vaulted  ceiling  afforded 
almost  room  enough  for  another  church.  It  had  its  tower,  its  belfry 
and  bell,  still  sweet  and  melodious,^  its  spire,  which,  had  it  been  pro- 
portioned in  height  to  the  tower  supporting  it,  would  have  ascended 
needle-like  almost  to  the  clouds.  With  all  its  architectural  defects, 
however,  it  was  a  fine  old  building,  well  adapted  to  the  purposes  of 
speaking  and  hearing;  filled  an  important  office,  both  to  the  congre- 
gation and  on  public  occasions;  stood  for  years  the  chief  landmark 
to  miles  of  surrounding  country,  and  at  last  resisted  sternly  the  efforts 
of  its  destroyers.  Its  site,  on  the  southwest  corner  of  the  grave- 
yard, is  well  defined  by  the  old  graves  and  tombs  which  clustered 
close  to  its  northern  and  eastern  sides,  and  is  the  only  part  of  the 
ground  divided  into  burial  lots." 

Alas!  before  this  manuscript  could  be  brought  to  the 
use  for  which  it  was  prepared,  the  body  of  its  accomplished 
writer  was  occupying  a  grave  in  the  very  part  of  the  church- 
yard described  in  its  closing  sentence.^ 

The  building  was  of  brick,  and  cost  ten  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  twenty  dollars.  It  had  seventy-two  pews  on 
the  floor,  divided  by  two  aisles,  and  thirty-six  in  the  gallery. 
Forty-six  were  put  at  the  annual  rent  of  twelve  dollars; 
eighteen  larger  ones  at  fourteen  dollars.  The  gallery  pews 
were  free,  and  one  side  was  reserved  for  colored  persons.^ 


NOTES. 


MaskEll  Ewing,  named  in  this  chapter,  belonged  to  what  is  now 
the  widespread  family  of  Ewing  in  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio, 
and  Maryland.  Thomas  Maskell,  of  England,  married  Bythia  Parsons 
in  Connecticut,  in  1658.     Thomas  Stathem,  of  England,  married  Ruth 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH. 


219 


Udell,  in  New  England,  in  1671.  Maskell's  son  married  Stathem's 
daughter.  Their  daughter  was  married  in  1720  to  Thomas  Ewing, 
who  had  recently  come  to  Greenwich,  West  Jersey,  from  Ireland. 
Their  eldest  son  was  M^skell  (1721),  who  was  at  different  times, 
Justice    of   the    Peace,    Clerk    and    Surrogate    of    Cumberland    county, 


Sheriff,  and  Judge  of  the  Pleas,  and  died  in  1796.  One  of  his  ten 
children  was  the  Maskell  Ewing,  of  Trenton.  He  was  born  January 
30,  1758;  in  his  youth  he  assisted  his  father  in  the  clerkship  in  Green- 
wich, and  before  he  was  twenty-one  was  elected  Clerk  of  the  State 
Assembly.  This  brought  him  to  Trenton,  and  he  filled  the  office  for 
twenty  years.  He  was  for  a  time  Recorder  of  the  city,  and  also  read 
law   in   the   office   of   William    C.   Houston.      In    1803   he    removed   to 


220  HISTORY   OF  THE 

Philadelphia,  and  in  1805  to  a  farm  in  Delaware  county,  Pennsylvania. 
He  represented  that  county  in  the  State  Senate  for  six  years.  He  died 
on  a  visit  to  Greenwich,  August  26,  1825.  His  son  Maskell  was  born 
in  1806,  was  a  lieutenant  in  the  army,  and  has  died  within  a  few  years. 

Among  the  branches  of  the  Ewing  stock  was  the  family  of  the 
JRev.  John  Ewing,  D.D.,  Provost  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania 
(1779-1803),  and  pastor  of  the  First  Church  of  Philadelphia.  On 
our  session  records  of  September  17,  1808,  are  the  names  of  "Mar- 
garet and  Amelia,  daughters  of  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Ewing,"  as  then 
admitted  to  their  first  communion,  and  May  6,  1808,  "Mrs.  Dr.  Ewing" 
to  the  same. 

II. 

Not  long  after  the  establishment  of  the  congregation  in  their  new 
house,  two  of  the  oldest  Trustees,  both  corporators  of  1788,  were 
removed  by  death,  namely,  Moore  Furman  and  Isaac  Smith.  A 
notice  of  Mr.  Smith  has  already  been  given. 

Mr.  Furman  was  one  of  the  successful  merchants  of  Trenton.  In 
the  Revolution  he  served  as  a  Deputy  Quartermaster-General.  He  was 
the  first  Mayor  of  Trenton,  by  appointment  of  the  Legislature,  upon 
its  incorporation,  in  1792. 

Mr.  Furman  was  elected  a  Trustee  June  12,  1760,  and  Treasurer  in 
1762.  Soon  after  that  year  he  removed  to  Pittstown,  and  afterwards 
to  Philadelphia.  He  returned  to  Trenton,  and  was  re-elected  to  the 
Board  in  1783,  and  continued  in  it  until  his  death,  March  16,  1808,  in 
his  eightieth  year.  His  grave-stone  is  in  the  porch  of  the  present 
church.' 

Though  so  long  connected  with  the  temporal  affairs  of  the  congre- 
gation, Mr.  Furman  was  not  a  communicant  until  November  i,  1806. 
He  made  a  written  request  of  Mr.  Armstrong  that  in  case  he  should 
be  called  to  officiate  at  his  funeral  he  would  speak  from  the  words : 
"Into  thine  hand  I  commit  my  spirit:  thou  hast  redeemed  me,  O  Lord 
God  of  truth."  (Psalm  31.)  This  request  was  faithfully  followed  in 
the  body  of  the  discourse,  to  which  the  Pastor  added  as  follows : 

"This  congregation  well  know  his  long  and  faithful  services  as  a 
zealous  supporter  and  Trustee  of  the  concerns  and  interests  of  this 
Church.  In  the  revolution  he  was  known  as  a  faithful  friend  of  his 
country,  and  was  intrusted  by  government  and  the  Commander-in- 
Chief  of  our  revolutionary  army — whose  friendship  was  honor  indeed 
— in  offices  and  in  departments  the  most  profitable  and  the  most  im- 
portant. When  bending  beneath  the  load  of  years  and  infirmities, 
Tiow  did  it  gladden  his  soul  and  appear  to  renew  his  life,  to  see  this 
edifice  rising  from  the  ruins  of  the  old  one  and  consecrated  to  the 
service  of  his  God!  And  did  you  not  see  him,  shortly  after  its  con- 
secration,   as    a    disciple    of   his    Redeemer    recognizing   his   baptismal 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  221 

vows,  and  in  that  most  solemn  transaction  of  our  holy  religion,  stretch- 
ing his  trembling  hands  to  receive  the  symbols  of  the  body  and  blood 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  and  in  that  act  express  the  sentiment  of  the 
words  selected  by  himself  for  the  use  of  this  mournful  occasion: 
'Into  thine  hand  I  commit  my  spirit:  thou  hast  redeemed  me,  O  Lord 
God  of  truth.'" 

III. 

One  of  the  Trustees  elected  to  supply  the  vacancies  made  by  the 
death  of  Moore  Furman  and  Isaac  Smith  was  Peter  Hunt,  whose  wife 
was  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Furman.  Mr.  Hunt  had  a  large  storehouse  at 
Lamberton  when  it  was  the  depot  for  the  trade  of  Trenton,  and  at 
the  time  of  his  death  was  in  partnership  with  Philip  F.  Howell.  He 
resided  on  the  estate  now  occupied  by  his  son,  Lieut.  W.  E.  Hunt,  of 
the  navy.  General  Hunt  (he  was  Adjutant-General)  died  at  Charles- 
ton, S.  C,  March  11,  1810,  at  the  age  of  forty-two,  having  spent  the 
winter  there  on  account  of  his  health.  The  Rev.  Dr.  HoUingshead 
had  a  highly  satisfactory  conversation  with  him  on  the  day  of  his 
death,  when  he  said :  "He  had  no  reluctance  nor  hesitation  to  submit 
to  all  the  will  of  God  in  the  article  of  death ;  freely  committed  his 
soul  into  the  hands  of  his  Redeemer,  and  left  his  surviving  family  to 
the  care  of  a  holy  and  gracious  Providence."*  He  was  buried,  with 
military  honors,  at  Charleston,  after  ser\aces  in  the  Circular  Church., 
and  there  is  a  cenotaph  commemorating  him  in  our  church  porch.^ 

IV. 

The  newspapers  of  the  day  record  the  burial,  in  the  Presbyterian 
ground,  of  William  Roscoe,  who  died  Oct.  9,  1805,  in  his  sevent3'--third 
year,  "a  first  cousin  of,  and  brought  up  by  the  celebrated  Wm.  Roscoe, 
of  Liverpool,  author  of  the  Life  of  Leo  X.,  etc.  In  the  Revolution 
he  was  express-rider  to  Governor  Livingston,  and  for  many  years 
Sergeant-at-Arms  to  the  Court  of  Chancery."^ 


January  18,  1806,  a  public  dinner  was  given  in  Trenton  to  Captain 
(afterward  Commodore)  Bainbridge,  upon  his  return  from  Barbary. 
The  commodore's  family  were  of  this  locality  and  church.  Edmund 
Bainbridge  was  an  elder  from  the  united  churches  of  Trenton  and 
Maidenhead  in  the  Presbytery  of  October,  1794.  John  Bainbridge  was 
one  of  the  grantees  in  the  church  deed  of  1698  (p.  15),  and  that 
name  is  still  visible  on  a  tombstone  in  a  deserted  burying-place  in 
Lamberton,  marked,  "Died   1732;   aged  seventy-five  years." 


•Letter  from  Dr.  H.  in  Trenton  True  American,  March  26,  1810. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

Theoi^ogical    Seminary — Mr.    Armstrong's    Death — 

Notes. 

1807 — 1816. 

Mr.  Armstrong  had  the  happiness  of  seeing  the  first 
Theological  School  of  our  Church  established  within  ten 
miles  of  Trenton,  and  in  the  village  so  much  associated  with 
the  earlier  scenes  of  his  academical  and  domestic  life.^  He 
was  in  the  General  Assembly  of  1810,  which  agreed  upon 
the  policy  of  one  central  institution;  and  in  that  of  1813, 
which  established  it  at  Princeton.  With  Dr.  Alexander  and 
Dr.  Miller,  the  first  professors,  his  intercourse  was  inti- 
mate during  the  few  years  of  life  that  remained  to  him  after 
their  coming  into  the  neighborhood,  and  both  oi  them  fre- 
quently supplied  his  pulpit  during  his  protracted  infirmity. 
It  was  an  additional  mark  of  providential  favor  that  he 
lived  to  see  the  first  fruits  of  the  Seminary,  and  to  give  his 
voice  for  the  licensing  of  its  earliest  graduates.  The  last 
time  he  appeared  in  Presbytery  was  at  the  session  of  April, 
181 5,  which  was  held  in  Trenton.  O'n  that  occasion  M^essrs. 
Weed,  Parmele,  Stanton,  and  Robertson,  of  the  first  class, 
were  licensed.^ 

The  records  of  each  session  are  annually  reviewed  by  a 
committee  of  Presbytery.  In  the  meeting  of  April,  181 3, 
the  committee  (Drs.  Woodhull  and  Alexander),  reporting 
favorably  on  the  Trenton  minutes,  add, 

"That  in  one  particular  especially,  the  utmost  care  and  attention 
liave  been  paid  to  the  purity  and  edification  of  the  Church,  and  to 
guard  against  errors  in  doctrine  and  practice." 

(223) 


224  HISTORY   OF   THE 

This  commendatioon  refers  to  an  act  of  the  session  ex- 
cluding from  church  privileges  a  member  who  had  adopted 
and  was  promulgating  the  Universalist  heresy,  vilifying 
the  comimunion  to  which  he  belonged,  and  refusing  to 
attend  its  worship.  In  April,  1816,  the  general  approval 
of  the  book  was  qualified  by  some  exceptions  as  to  the  sum- 
mary measures  pursued  by  the  session  in  suspending  one 
of  their  own  number,  upon  his  declining  to  take  their 
advice  to  discontinue  his  service  as  an  elder.  Upon  this 
exception  the  session  reversed  their  judgment,  and  the 
elder  withdrev/  from  the  exercise  of  his  office ;  but  he 
appears  afterwards  to  have  been  reinstated. 

When  the  New  Jersey  Bible  Society  was  organized  in 
1 810,  Mr.  Armstrong  was  elected  a  manager.^  In  181 3 
the  anniversary  of  the  Society  was  held  in  his  church, 
when  Dr.  Wharton,  the  Episcopal  minister  of  Burlington, 
preached,  and  the  Rev.  Wm.  H.  Wilmer,  of  Virginia,  read 
the  liturgy.  This  courtesy  was  extended  in  consequence 
of  the  Episcopal  Church  being  under  repair. 

On  the  anniversary  of  Independence,  in  1808,  Mr.  Arm- 
strong was  again  the  orator  at  the  celebration  by  the  Cin- 
cinnati, and  citizens.'*  He  acted  as  chaplain  on  that  day  in 
181 2,  when  the  "Washington  Benevolent  Society  of  Tren- 
ton" made  their  first  public  appearance,  and  the  concourse 
in  the  church  was  swelled  by  the  members  of  a  political  con- 
vention opposed  to  the  war,  which  was  then  meeting  in  the 
town.^ 

The  suffering,  and  incapacity  of  freely  moving  his  limbs^ 
produced  by  his  tedious  disease,  were  now  depriving  Mr. 
Armstrong  of  the  prospect  of  ever  resuming  his  pastoral 
duties.  The  mere  ascending  into  the  pulpit  cost  the  most 
painful  exertion.  He  suppressed,  as  far  as  possible,  the 
exhibition  of  his  anguish,  that  he  might  perform  the  work 
in  which  he  delighted;  and  although  the  act  of  writing 
must  have  been  peculiarly  distressing  to  his  distorted  hands,. 


I 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  225 

I  have  seen  more  than  one  discourse  from  his  pen,  indorsed 
as  prepared  to  be  read  to  the  congregation  by  a  substitute, 
when  too  ill  to  leave  his  house.^  One  of  these  (not  dated) 
begins  thus : 

"Unable,  through  the  dispensation  of  Divine  Providence,  to  address 
you  in  public,  I  embrace  the  only  means  in  my  powrer  to  convey  a  por- 
tion of  that  instruction  which,  I  trust,  has  often  been  administered  to 
our  mutual  edification.  During  the  space  of  many  years  I  have  not 
for  any  whole  day  been  free  from  pain.  Reduced  at  times  to  the 
borders  of  the  grave,  and  reviving,  contrary  to  all  human  expectation, 
I  have  ardently  desired  to  address  you  as  one  rising  from  the  dead. 
A  person  on  the  verge  of  two  worlds,  contemplating  the  dread  realities 
of  eternity,  standing  equal  chances  to  be  the  next  hour  an  inhabitant  of 
time  or  eternity,  must  have  most  impressive  sentiments  from  the  rela- 
tions which  they  bear  to  each  other.  In  these  moments,  and  under 
these  impressions,  I  have  wished  for  strength  and  opportunity,  if  it 
were  but  for  once,  to  appear  in  the  assemblies  of  the  people  of  God,  as 
I  was  wont  to  do.  But  on  a  conscientious  review  of  the  matter  and  the 
manner  of  my  public  instructions,  I  am  constrained  to  ask  what  could 
I  do  more  than  I  have  done  ?  All  I  could  hope  for  would  be  that  your 
sympathy,  excited  by  my  long  and  painful  affliction,  and  heightened 
by  an  unexpected  restoration  to  health,  might,  through  the  aids  of 
divine  grace,  awaken  a  more  lively  attention,  and  give  a  more  im- 
pressive solemnity  to  eternal  things." 

This  touching  preface  was  followed  by  an  earnest  and 
tender  application  of  the  lessons  of  our  Lord's  parable  of 
the  fig  tree  that  remained  unfruitful  after  years  of  faithful 
culture. 

In  April,  181 5,  the  congregation  authorized  the  session 
to  engage  an  assistant  minister,  and  they  chose  Mr.  David 
Bishop,  a  licentiate,  and  at  that  time  a  teacher  in  the  Trenton 
Academy — afterwards  pastor  in  Easton.  In  the  summer 
of  that  year  Mr.  Armstrong  performed  his  last  public  ser- 
vice, and  many  still  remember  an  affecting  incident  con- 
nected with  it.  Though  anaciated  and  worn  down  by  pain, 
there  was  no  reason  at  that  time  to  suppose  that  he  might 
not  yet,  as  for  years  past,  make  his  way  to  the  pulpit  and 
assist  in  the  services.  But  on  that  Sabbath  it  was  noticed 
15    PRKS 


226  HISTORY   OF   THE 

that  the  only  psalm  used  in  the  singing  was  the  third  part 
of  the  seventy-first;  the  first  half  (or  to  the  "pause")  being 
SiUing  at  the  beginning,  and  the  remainder  at  the  close  of 
the  devotional  exercises.  His  text  was  "Woe  unto  me  if  I 
preach  not  the  Gospel."  There  could  not  have  been  many 
unmoved  hearts  as  the  feeble  pastor,  verging  on  three-score 
and  ten,  read — 

"The  land  of  silence  and  of  death 
Attends  my  next  remove ; 
Oh !    may  these  poor  remains  of  breath, 
Teach  the  wide  world  thy  love. 

"By  long  experience  have  I  known 
Thy  sovereign  power  to  save ; 
At  thy  command  I  venture  down 
Securely  to  the  grave. 

"When  I  lie  buried  deep  in  dust, 
My  flesh  shall  be  thy  care ; 
These  withered  limbs  with  thee  I  trust, 
To  raise  them  strong  and  fair." 

In  a  few  months  this  faith  was  realized,  and  he  entered 
on  his  rest,  January  19,  18 16,  in  the  sixty-sixth  year  of  his 
age,  the  thirty-eighth  of  his  ministry,  and  (counting  from 
the  date  of  his  call)  the  thirty-first  of  his  pastorship. 

On  the  twenty-second  the  remains  of  the  deceased  pastor 
were  followed  to  the  church  by  a  large  concourse,  and,  be- 
fore they  were  committed  to  the  earth,  an  instructive 
discourse  was  delivered  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Miller.  The 
preacher  closed  as  follows  : 

"With  respect  to  the  character  and  success  of  his  labors  among  you, 
my  brethren,  there  needs  no  testimony  from  me.  You  have  seen  him 
for  nearly  thirty  years  going  in  and  out  before  you,  laboring  with 
assiduity,  and  during  a  great  part  of  the  time  under  the  pressure  of 
disease,  for  your  spiritual  welfare.  You  have  seen  him  addressing 
you  with  affectionate  earnestness,  when  his  enfeebled  frame  was 
scarcely  able  to  maintain  an  erect  posture  in  the  pulpit.  You  have 
heard   him  lamenting,    in   the   tenderest  terms,   his   inabihty  to   serve 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  227 

you  in  a  more  active  manner.  And  you  have  seen  him  manifesting 
with  frequency  his  earnest  desire  to  promote  your  best  interest,  even 
when  weakness  compelled  him  to  be  absent  from  the  solemn  assembly. 

"But  why  enlarge  on  these  topics  before  those  who  knew  him  so 
well?  or  why  dwell  upon  points  of  excellence  in  his  character  which 
all  acknowledged  ?  The  warmth  of  his  friendship ;  his  peculiar  urban- 
ity; his  domestic  virtues;  his  attachment  to  evangelical  truth;  his 
decided  friendliness  to  vital  piety ;  his  punctuality,  as  long  as  he  had 
strength  to  go  abroad,  in  attending  on  the  judicatories  of  the  Church; 
these,  among  the  many  excellent  traits  of  character  exhibited  by  the 
pastor  of  whom  you  have  just  taken  leave,  will  no  doubt  be  remem- 
bered with  respect  and  with  mournful  pleasure,  for  a  long  time  to 
come. 

"More  than  once  have  I  witnessed,  during  his  weakness  and  decline, 
not  only  the  anxious  exercises  of  one  who  watched  over  the  interests 
of  his  own  soul  with  a  sacred  jealousy,  but  also  the  affectionate 
aspirations  of  his  heart  for  the  eternal  welfare  of  his  family  and  flock. 
Farewell !  afflicted,  beloved  man,  farewell !  We  shall  see  thee  again ; 
see  thee,  we  trust,  no  more  the  pale  victim  of  weakness,  disease,  and 
death,  but  in  the  image  and  the  train  of  our  blessed  Master,  and  in 
all  the  immortal  youth,  and  health,  and  lustre  of  his  glorified  family. 
May  it  then,  oh !  may  it  then  appear  that  all  thine  anxious  prayers 
and  all  thine  indefatigable  labors  for  the  spiritual  benefit  of  those 
who  were  so  dear  to  thine  heart,  have  not  been  in  vain  in  the  Lord.'" 

The  epitaph  on  the  tomb  of  Mr.  Armstrong,  in  the 
church-yard,  was  written  by  President  S.  Stanhope  Smith : 

"Sacred  to  the  memory  of  the  Reverend  James  Francis  Armstrong, 
thirty  years  pastor  of  the  church  at  Trenton,  in  union  with  the  church 
at  Maidenhead.  Born  in  Maryland,  of  pious  parents,  he  received  the 
elements  of  his  classical  education  under  the  Rev.  John  Blair;  finished 
his  collegiate  studies  in  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  under  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Witherspoon,  and  was  licensed  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  the  year 
1777.  An  ardent  patriot,  he  served  through  the  War  of  Independence 
as  a  chaplain.  In  1790  he  was  chosen  a  Trustee  of  the  College  of 
New  Jersey.  A  warm  and  constant  friend,  a  devout  Christian,  a 
tender  husband  and  parent;  steady  in  his  attendance  on  the  judicatories 
of  the  Church ;  throughout  his  life  he  was  distinguished  as  a  fervent 
and  affectionate  minister  of  the  Gospel,  and  resigned  his  soul  to  his 
Creator  and  Redeemer  on  the  nineteenth  of  January,  1816.  'Blessed 
are  the  dead  who  die  in  the  Lord.    Amen :  even  so  come  Lord  Jesus.'  " 


228  HISTORY   OF  THE 

NOTES. 


For  the  years  of  Mr.  Armstrong's  pastorate  before  1806,  there  is  no 
official  record  of  statistics.  In  a  memorandum  made  by  him,  he  says 
that  when  he  first  came  to  Trenton  "the  number  of  communicants  did 
not  exceed  perhaps  eight  or  nine  in  that  church,  exclusive  of  Maiden- 
head. The  numbers  increased  slowly  and  gradually.  At  every  com- 
munion season,  which  was  twice  a  year,  a  few  were  added ;  generally 
of  such  as  had  been  under  serious  impression  for  some  time  before 
admission." 

In  1806  the  whole  number  of  communicants  in  Trenton  was  sixty- 
eight.  Two  only  of  these  are  known  to  be  surviving  in  1859.  At  the 
two  communions  of  1808  seventeen  persons  made  their  first  profession 
at  one,  and  thirteen  at  the  other.  In  1809  seventeen  more  were  re- 
ceived. Among  the  manuscripts  of  Mr.  Armstrong  is  a  series  of  ser- 
mons on  the  divine  being,  attributes,  and  perfections,  marked  by  him 
as  having  been  preached  "just  before  so  many  were  added  to  the 
church  in  1808  and  1809."  In  1810  the  whole  number  of  communicants 
was  one  hundred  and  twenty-four;  in  1815,  one  hundred  and  eleven. 


II. 

I  throw  into  this  note  some  miscellaneous  items  collected  from  the 
books  of  the  Treasurer  and  Trustees  at  the  close  of  the  last  century. 

The  windows  of  the  church  appear  to  have  been  exposed  to  extra- 
ordinary casualties,  as  there  are  constant  entries  of  payments  for 
glazing,  and  sometimes  subscriptions  for  that  object.  Evening  ser- 
vices were  only  occasional,  as  we  learn  from  such  entries  as,  "1786, 
March  18,  paid  for  candles  when  Mr.  Woodhull  preached  in  the 
evening,  2s.  6d."  There  were  collections  on  every  Sabbath;  their 
amount  varied  from  2S.  4cf.  to  £1  iss.  2d.  That  the  old  prescriptive 
coin  was  freely  used  on  these  occasions  is  revealed  in  such  entries 
as,  "By  old  coppers" ;  "to  amount  of  old  coppers  on  hand  that  won't 
pass."  The  collections  were  sometimes  for  other  than  church  pur- 
poses. "1788,  collection  for  Rev.  Samson  Occom.''^  "1789,  collection 
raised  for  a  poor  traveler,  27s.  6d."  In  1792,  £2  ys.  6d.  were  collected 
"for  Lutherans  to  build  a  church  at  Fort  Pitt."  In  1806,  five  mahogany 
"poles  and  [velvet]  bags  for  collecting  at  church,"  were  provided,  ac- 
cording to  a  fashion  long  since  superseded  by  boxes.  For  several 
years  there  is  an  invariable  charge  of  is.  6d.  for  "sweeping  meeting- 
house," every  fortnight.     The  supplies  for  the  pulpit,  and  the  expense 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  229 

of  their  horses,  seem  to  have  been  regularly  paid.  "1779,  paid  Rev. 
Mr.  Grant,  as  a  supply,  being  a  young  man  unsettled,  £1  2s.  6d." 
1785,  "Supply  one  day  and  a  half,  45.^."  "Half  a  day,  15J."  The 
office  of  Deacon  was  performed  by  the  pastor  and  elders  at  their  dis- 
cretion, out  of  funds  in  the  Treasurer's  hands.  "Paid  Mr.  Arm- 
strong for  a  sick  woman  at  Mr.  Morrice's."     "Shirt  for  .'' 

"Relieving  her  distress."  "Paid  Bell  that  was  scalded."  "Seth  Babbitt, 
a  stranger  that  was  in  distress,  being  castaway,  as  he  said."  Fuel 
was  often  distributed.  December  20,  1799:  "Bill  for  sundries  to  put 
the  pulpit  in  mourning  for  G.  Washington,  and  Mrs.  Emerson  for  put- 
ting it  on."  The  expenses  of  Presbj'tery  were  sometimes  borne  by 
the  church  treasury.  "To  Presbytery's  expenses  at  Mr.  Witt's,"  one 
of  the  hotels,  means  probably  the  keeping  of  their  horses ;  but  I  must 
not  conceal  that  in  1792  there  is  this  charge,  "for  beer  at  Presbytery, 
4s.  lod."  In  the  same  year  the  other  congregation  were  more  liberal 
in  their  entertainment,  as  appears  by  this  entry :  "Bought  of  Abraham 
Hunt,  for  the  use  of  the  congregation  when  Presbytery  sat  in  Maiden- 
head : 

"8  gal.  Lisbon  wine  at  js.  6d.,   £3  0 

"5     "      spirits,    gs.,    25 


£5  5" 


Ten  years  before — "half  gallon  of  rum."  The  last,  we  may  suppose, 
was  for  the  use  of  workmen  about  the  church,  according  to  the  cus- 
tom then  universal.  In  building  the  church  of  1805,  "spirits"  were 
bought  for  this  purpose  by  the  barrel.  The  churches  were  sometimes 
repaid  for  this  branch  of  their  expenditures;  as  in  1798,  Mr.  Bond 
(probably  a  magistrate),  divided  between  the  Presbyterian  and  Epis- 
copal churches  a  fine  collected  by  him  from  some  unlicensed  vender 
of  spirituous  liquors. 

In  November,  1786,  the  purchase  of  "an  elegant,  large  Bible  for 
the  use  of  the  Trenton  Church,"  was  authorized.  The  sexton's  fee 
for  digging  a  grave,  inviting  to  the  funeral,  and  tolling  the  bell,  was 
fixed  at  two  dollars.  In  1799  it  was  increased  to  three  dollars  and  a 
half.  As  late  as  1842  it  was  the  custom  for  the  sextons  to  go  from 
house  to  house  and  make  verbal  notice  of  funerals  at  the  doors. 
There  were  not  then,  as  now,  three  daily  newspapers  to  supersede  the 
necessity  of  pubHshing  notices  of  this  kind  from  the  pulpit  or  other- 
wise. 

The  Trustees  appear  to  have  provided  for  the  conveyance  of  the 
pastor  to  the  places  of  the  meeting  of  the  Presbytery.  At  one  time  it 
was  "agreed  that  Mr.  Jacob  Carle  or  his  son,  Capt.  Israel  Carle  [neither 
elder  nor  Trustee]  attend  Mr.  Armstrong  to  the  Presbytery."  At 
another  time    (1787)   James  Ewing,   Esq.,    [then  in  no  church  office,] 


230  HISTORY    OF   THE 

was  designated  to  this  service.  There  may  have  been  that  deficiency 
of  acting  elders  (at  least  in  the  town)  at  this  time,  to  which  Mr. 
Armstrong  refers  in  a  note  of  1813,  in  which  he  speaks  of  his  having 
had  charge  of  the  charity-fund :  "I  am  inclined  to  believe  before  there 
were  any  elders  in  the  congregation."  The  expenses  of  the  session  in 
attending  judicatories  were  paid  by  the  Trustees. 

The  pew-rents  in  town  were  received  by  a  collector  annually  ap- 
pointed by  the  Trustees  out  of  their  own  number,  or  from  the  con- 
gregation. Delinquents  were  sometimes  threatened  with  the  last  resort. 
In  1788  it  was  ordered,  "that  no  horses  or  other  creatures  be  put  in 
the  graveyard."  It  is  presumed  that  this  was  a  prohibition  against 
hitching  the  animals  there  on  the  Sabbath,  or  pasturing  them  at  any 
time.  The  sexton,  however,  had  "leave  to  pasture  sheep  in  the  grave- 
yard." 

In  1788,  "the  present  meeting  taking  into  consideration  the  great 
defect  in  public  worship  in  the  congregation,  by  want  of  a  regular 
clerk,  and  Mr.  John  Friend,  a  member  of  the  congregation,  having 
voluntarily  offered  himself  steadily  to  supply  that  office,  the  congre- 
gation accepted  of  his  offer  and  desire  the  Trustees  to  make  any  agree- 
ment they  may  think  proper  with  said  Friend  on  that  subject." 

In  1799,  (at  a  congregational  meeting,)  "whereas  applications  are 
often  making  for  the  burial  of  strangers  in  the  ground  belonging  to 
this  congregation,  by  which  means  it  is  filling  up  very  fast,  therefore 
it  is  ordered  that  no  stranger  be  permitted  to  be  buried  in  said  ground 
hereafter,  without  paying  what  may  be  agreed  upon  by  the  Trustees 
of  said  church ;  and  for  relief  in  the  premises  it  is  agreed  that  pro- 
posals be  made  to  the  other  societies  of  Christians  in  this  place,  and 
to  the  inhabitants  in  general,  to  open  and  promote  subscriptions  for 
the  purpose  of  purchasing  a  piece  of  ground  for  a  Potter's  field."  The 
Trenton  "Potter's  field"  is  on  the  New  Brunswick  road,  and  was 
probably  purchased  by  the  town  about  1802.  One  of  the  graves  is 
designated  as  follow^s :  "Sacred  to  the  memory  of  Judy,  wife  of  Wil- 
liam Field;  faithful  and  favorite  Christian  servants  of  the  late  Robert 
Finley,  D.D.,  of  Basking  Ridge,  New  Jersey.     Erected  1839." 

In  1799  the  Trustees  "ordered  that  the  minutes  and  proceedings  of 
the  congregation  and  Trustees  be  read  by  the  minister  or  clerk  of  the 
church  the  next  Sabbath,  or  as  soon  as  convenient  after  their  meetings, 
in  order  that  it  be  generally  known  how  .the  business  of  the  Society 
is  conducted." 

Some  precedence  seems  to  have  been  accorded  to  the  Governor  of 
the  State.  He  was  allowed  the  first  choice  of  a  pew  in  the  new  church 
of  1806.  The  incumbent  at  that  time  was  Joseph  Bloomfield,  known 
by  the  titles  both  of  Governor  and  General.  He  resided  in  Trenton 
during  the  successive  terms  of  his  administration,  (1801-12.)  Mrs. 
Bloomfield  was  a  communicant  of  the  church,  and  her  nephew,  Bishop 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  231 

Mcllvaine,  remembers  the  visits  of  his  childhood  to  the  then  new,  but 
now  demoHshed  church. 

In  the  earlier  part  of  Mr.  Armstrong's  ministry  he  conformed  to 
the  custom,  then  common  in  our  pulpits,  of  wearing  a  gown  and  bands. 
The  practice  seems  to  have  fallen  gradually  into  disuse,  more  from  its 
inconveniences  than  from  any  rise  of  scruples.  The  variety  of  English 
academical  gowns  seems  to  have  been  known  in  our  State  as  late  as 
1800,  for  in  that  year  a  Burlington  tailor  advertises  in  the  Trenton 
Gazette:    "D.D.,  M.A.,  and  other  clerical  robes  made  correctly."' 

III. 

In  1815  the  church  lost  one  of  its  ruling  elders.  His  epitaph  is : 
"In  memory  of  Nicholas  Dubois,"  many  years  teacher  of  the  Young 
Ladies'  Academy,  and  an  elder  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  this 
place.  Died  November  4,  1815.  An.  set.  forty-four.  A  man  amiable, 
pious,  and  exemplary;  a  teacher,  able,  zealous,  and  faithful;  an  elder 
ardently  devoted  to  the  welfare  of  his  Father's  flock." 

IV. 

The  interval  between  Mr.  Armstrong  and  his  successor  is  marked 
in  our  history  by  the  commencement  of  the  Sunday-school  of  the 
church.  The  earliest  school  of  this  description  was  instituted  by  mem- 
bers of  the  Society  of  Friends,  for  the  instruction  of  colored  persons. 
It  was  called  the  "Trenton  First-day  School,"  and  the  primary  meet- 
ing of  the  Society  was  called  for  "the  second  second-day  of  the  second 
month,"  1809.  This  failed,  as  it  would  appear,  from  want  of  means 
to  pay  a  teacher;  and  in  May,  181 1,  a  society  of  all  denominations 
formed  "a  first-day,  or  Sunday-school,  for  the  instruction  of  the  poor 
of  all  descriptions  and  colors.""  I  am  indebted  to  John  M.  Sherrerd, 
Esq.,  of  Belvidere,^  for  the  following  interesting  memoranda  as  to 
the  introduction  of  the  more  strictly  religious,  or  church  Sunday- 
school  : 

"While  a  student  of  law  in  the  office  of  the  late  Chief  Justice 
Ewing,  in  the  winter  of  1815-16,  I  became  a  member  of  the  Trenton 
church,  under  the  preaching  of  Dr.  Alexander,  who  chiefly  supplied 
the  pulpit  after  the  death  of  Mr.  Armstrong.  There  was  some 
awakening  among  the  churches  in  that  winter.  We  held  a  union 
prayer-meeting,  weekly,  for  some  time,  and  at  one  of  these  it  was 
mooted  whether  we  might  not  do  good  by  starting  a  Sunday-school. 
Several  of  us  had  read  about  such  schools  in  England,  and  heard  that 
they  had  been  begun  in  Philadelphia,  but  none  of  us  had  ever  seen  one. 
Our  prayer-meeting  was  composed  of  about  a  dozen  young  men  who 
had  just  united  with  the  different  churches,  and  a  few  others  who 
were    seriously    disposed.      I    recollect    the    names    of    Gershom    Mott, 


232  HISTORY   OF   THE 

John  French,  and  Mr.  Bowen,  Baptists;  John  Probasco,  a  Methodist;" 
Lewis  Evans,  who  was  brought  up  a  Friend.  At  first  I  was  the  only 
Presbyterian,  but  others  soon  joined  me.  I  was  appointed  to  visit  the 
schools  in  Philadelphia,  and  accordingly  spent  a  Sabbath  there,  during 
which  I  visited  the  old  Arch  Street,  Christ  Church,  and  St.  John's 
Schools,  which  were  all  I  could  find.  The  teachers  furnished  me  with 
all  the  desired  information,  and  gave  me  specimens  of  tickets,  cards, 
books,  etc.  On  my  return  we  determined  to  make  the  experiment, 
and  obtained  the  use  of  the  old  school-room  over  the  market-house 
on  Mill  Hill,  which  then  stood  nearly  opposite  the  present  Mercer 
court  house,  and  eight  o'clock  on  the  next  Sunday  morning  found  us 
assembled   there — six   teachers   and   twenty-six   scholars. 

"We  kept  up  our  weekly  prayer-meeting  at  different  places,  in  the 
Baptist,  Presbyterian,  and  Methodist  connection — chiefly  in  the  first 
two.  Every  Sunday  the  school  was  dismissed  in  time  to  attend  the 
three  churches,  on  alternate  days,  each  teacher  accompanying  his  class 
and  occupying  a  part  of  the  gallery.  We  seldom  failed  of  having  a 
word  of  encouragement  from  the  officiating  minister,  and  I  well 
remember  the  address  of  Dr.  Alexander,  the  first  Sabbath  we  met  in 
the  Presbyterian  Church.  At  the  end  of  three  months,  the  room 
becoming  too  small  for  us,  we  formed  a  school  in  each  of  the  three 
churches,  and  each  soon  became  as  large  as  the  original  one.  The 
Presbyterian  was  held  in  the  school  building  on  your  church  lot.  The 
others  in  the  Baptist  Church  and  Trenton  Academy.  I  continued  there 
about  nine  months,  and  until  I  left  Trenton,  during  which  time  we 
kept  up  our  union  prayer-meeting,  and  the  visits  of  all  the  schools 
alternately  at  the  different  churches  on  Sunday  mornings.  Towards 
the  last  they  almost  filled  the  gallery  of  each  church.  After  the  sepa- 
ration on  Mill  Hill  female  teachers,  for  the  first  time,  took  part.  We 
followed  the  old  plan  of  each  scholar  committing  as  much  as  he  could 
during  the  week — receiving  tickets,  redeemed,  at  a  certain  number, 
with  books.  One  factory  boy,  I  remember,  who,  although  twelve  hours 
at  work  daily,  committed  so  many  verses  that  I  could  not  hear  him 
in  school-hours,  but  took  the  time  for  it  after  church." 

From  a  document  in  a  Trenton  newspaper  (August  8,  1817)  it  ap- 
pears that  the  three  schools  mentioned  by  Mr.  Sherrerd  were  organ- 
ized under  the  title  of  "The  Trenton  and  Lamberton  Sunday  Free- 
School  Association."  The  date  of  its  beginning  is  there  given  as  March 
9,  1816.  "From  April  to  October  the  school  consisted  of  ninety 
scholars.  On  the  twenty-seventh  October  it  was  divided  into  three." 
"It  is  with  peculiar  pleasure  the  Association  notice  those  two  nurseries 
of  mercy,  the  Female  and  African  Sunday-schools,  which  have  arisen 
since  the  establishment  of  their  own."  A  column  of  a  newspaper  of 
October  4,  1819,  is  occupied  with  a  report  of  the  "Trenton  Sabbath- 
day  School,"  which  opens  with  saying,  "Nine  months  have  now  elapsed 
since,  by  the  exertions  of  a  few  gentlemen,  this  school  was  founded." 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  233 

The  report  is  signed  by  James  C.  How,  afterwards  the  Rev.  Mr.  How, 
of  Delaware,  a  brother  of  the  Presbyterian  pastor.  In  February,  1821, 
the  same  Society  reports  that  it  had  four  schools,  the  boys',  the  girls', 
the  African,  and  one  at  Morrisville."  The  last  school  had,  in  Novem- 
ber, 1819,  eleven  teachers  and  one  hundred  and  sixteen  scholars.  The 
"Female  Tract  Society"  furnished  tracts  monthly  to  the  schools,  and 
the  "Juvenile  Dorcas  Society"  suppHed  clothing  to  the  children. 

Six  female  members  of  our  congregation  (Ellen  Burrowes,  Mary 
Ann  Tucker,''  Mary  A.  Howell,  Hannah  E.  Howell,  Eliza  R.  Cham- 
bers, and  Hannah  Hayden)  originated  "The  Female  Sabbath  Asso- 
ciation," October  4,  1816.  To  these  were  soon  added  Sarah  M.  Stock- 
ton (afterwards  wife  of  Rev.  W.  J.  Armstrong),  Rosetta  C.  Hyer, 
Jane  Lowry,  EHza  C.  Palmer,  Lydia  Middleton  (afterwards  wife  of 
Rev.  Henry  Woodward),  Ellen  E.  Burrowes  (Mrs.  Stacy  G.  Potts), 
Catherine  Schenck,  Mary  Creed,  Abigail  Ryall,  Juliette  Rice,'°  Susan 
Armstrong,  Anna  Jackson  (wife  of  Rev.  Jos.  Sanford)."  The  ses- 
sion granted  the  use  of  the  gallery  of  the  church,  as  a  place  of  teach- 
ing. The  school  was  opened  October  20,  and  was  held  for  an  hour 
and  a  half  in  the  afternoon.  A  boys'  school  was  afterwards  formed, 
of  which  Mr.  James  C.  How  was  the  first  Superintendent.  There  are 
eight  hundred  and  twenty-two  names  on  the  roll  of  female  pupils  from 
1822  to  1839. 


V. 


In  the  minutes  of  the  Trustees,  March  19,  1814,  is  this  entry: 

"Benjamin  Smith,  Esq.,  who  has  for  a  long  time  been  a  Trustee 
and  President  of  the  Board,  as  also  Treasurer  for  the  church,  all 
which  offices  he  has  filled  with  faithfulness,  but  expecting  shortly  to 
remove  to  Elizabethtown,  and  make  that  his  final  place  of  abode,  begged 
for  said  reason  to  resign  his  trusteeship." 

Mr.  Smith  was  elected  "a  Deacon  for  Trenton,"  May  6,  1777,  and 
was  an  elder  in  1806,  and  probably  for  some  years  before.  He  died 
in  Elizabethtown,  October  2^,  1824,  and  a  sermon  was  preached  at  his 
funeral  by  his  pastor,  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  McDowell,  from  the  words: 
"Lord,  I  have  loved  the  habitation  of  Thy  house,  and  the  place  where 
Thine  honor  dwelleth."  This  text  had  been  selected  by  himself  for 
the  purpose,  and  his  will  directed  the  same  to  be  inscribed  on  his 
tomb.  By  the  kindness  of  Dr.  McDowell,  I  am  enabled  to  present  a 
copy  of  the  statements  in  the  funeral  discourse,  which  show  how 
appHcable  was  its  inspired  motto: 

"Our  departed  friend  loved  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  he  has  told 
the  speaker  that  this  evidence  has  often  encouraged  and  comforted 
his  soul,  when  he  could  get  hold  of  scarcely  any  other.  His  conduct 
in  this  respect  corresponded  with  his  profession.     Through  a  long  life 


234  HISTORY    OF   THE 

he  manifested  that  he  loved  the  Lord's  house.  It  was  taught  him. 
I  have  understood,  from  his  childhood.  At  an  early  age  he  became 
the  subject  of  serious  impressions,  and  hopefully  of  divine  grace.  He 
was  first  received  into  this  church  under  the  ministry  of  the  Rev. 
James  Caldwell,  in  the  year  1765,  when  he  was  about  eighteen  years 
old.  He  afterwards  removed  to  Trenton,  and  connected  himself  with 
that  church,  where  he  spent  most  of  his  days.  There  he  long  acted 
in  the  office  of  ruling  elder.  During  the  latter  part  of  the  time  of 
his  residence  in  Trenton,  the  congregation  erected  a  new  house  of 
worship.  In  this  he  took  a  deep  and  active  interest.  He  bestowed 
much  of  his  time,  contributed  liberally  of  his  means,  and  went  abroad 
soliciting  aid  for  its  completion.  About  ten  years  since  he  removed 
to  this  town,  and  in  the  decline  of  life  again  connected  himself  with 
this  church.  He  was  soon  elected  a  ruling  elder,  which  office  he  exe- 
cuted with  fidelity  until  his  decease,  in  the  seventy-ninth  year  of  his 
age.  He  manifested  his  love  to  the  house  of  God  by  his  constant 
attendance  on  its  worship  until  his  last  short  illness;  and  he  mani- 
fested it  in  his  will,  by  leaving  a  bequest  for  the  support  of  its  wor- 
ship, and  remembering  other  congregations  in  the  town.  His  last 
words  were :     'Welcome,  sweet  day  of  rest.' " 

Among  the  legacies  of  Mr.  Smith's  will  was  one  of  twenty-five 
hundred  dollars  for  the  endowment  of  a  scholarship  in  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary  at  Princeton,  which  was  realized  in  1839,  upon  the 
decease  of  his  widow.  It  stands  the  twenty-sixth  on  the  list  of  scholar- 
ships, and  bears  the  name  of  its  founder. 


VI. 

(Added    from   Dr.   Hall's    Supplement.) 

Rev.  Mr.  Waddell,  mentioned  in  the  account  of  the  New  Jersey 
Bible  Society  in  the  Appendix,  p.  355,  was  the  rector  of  St.  Michael's 
Church.  Another  of  Mr.  Armstrong's  friends  was  Rev.  Thomas 
Pictou,  of  Westfield,  Essex  county,  New  Jersey,  for  a  time  pastor 
in  Woodbury,  N.  J.,  and  afterwards  chaplain  at  West  Point  (1820). 
He  was  a  Welshman  by  birth.  His  daughter  married  Edwin  Stevens, 
of  Hoboken,  where  Mr.  Pictou  for  a  time  resided.  His  wife  was  a 
Zantzinger.  He  is  mentioned  in  E.  D.  Mansfield's  "Personal  Memo- 
ries,"  1803-1843,  published  in  Cincinnati,   1879,  pp.  88-91. 

In  our  baptismal  records,  in  the  handwriting  of  Mr.  Armstrong,  is 
this: 

"1806,  Nathaniel  Sayre  Harris,  born  September  24,  1805,  son  of 
Rev.  Nathaniel  and  Catherine  Harris,  baptized  by  Rev.  Thomas  Pic- 
tou, of  Westfield,  Essex  county." 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  235 

Rev.  Nathaniel  Harris  married  the  widow  of  Samuel  Witham 
Stockton  (p.  243),  who  was  the  daughtetr  of  Col.  (John?)  Coxe.  Mr. 
Harris  was  a  Presbyterian,  and  Principal  of  the  Trenton  Academy, 
1801-1803. 

Nathaniel  Sayre  Harris  was  a  cadet  at  West  Point  (afterward 
Professor  of  Tactics),  and  then  an  Episcopal  minister.  In  1878,  when 
he  was  on  a  visit  at  J.  G.  Stevens',  in  Trenton,  I  showed  him  the 
baptismal  entry  above,  a  copy  of  which  I  had  previously  given  to  his 
son,  Rev.  J.  Andrews  Harris,  of  Chestnut  Hill,  Philadelphia  (an  Epis- 
copal minister). 


REV.   SAMUEL  B.  HOW,  D.D. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Samuel  B.  How,  D.D. — William  J.  Armstrong,  D.D. — 
The  Rev.  John  Smith.^ — Notes. 

1816— 1828. 

On  the  nineteenth  of  August,  18 16,  the  congregation  met 
and  elected  for  their  pastor  the  Rev.  Samuel  Blanchard 
How. 

Mr.  (now  Dr.)  How,  a  native  of  BurHngton,  graduated 
in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania  (1811)  ;  was  tutor  for  a 
short  time  in  Dickinson  College;  then  a  master  of  the  Gram- 
mar School  of  his  University;  was  licensed  by  the  Presby- 
tery of  Philadelphia  in  1813;  then  passed  a  session  at  the 
Princeton  Seminary,  and  on  November  10,  18 14,  was  or- 
dained and  installed  pastor  at  Solebury,  Bucks  county. 

Mr.  How  was  installed  over  the  Trenton  congregation 
December  17,  1816,  on  which  occasion  Dr.  Miller  presided. 
Dr.  Alexander  preached  (2  Cor.  3  :  16).  Dr.  Miller  gave 
the  charge  to  the  pastor,  and  the  Rev.  I.  V.  Brown  the 
charge  to  the  congregation.  This  pastorship  was  happily 
and  usefully  continued  until  April,  1821,  when  a  call  from 
the  First  Church  of  New  Brunswick  was  laid  before  the 
Presbytery,  and  he  was  installed  in  that  city  in  the  follow- 
ing June.^  The  additions  to  the  communion  of  the  church 
in  these  five  years  were  fifty-six  on  their  first  profession,  and 
thirty  on  certificates  from  other  churches. - 

Dr.  How  was  followed  by  the  late  William  Jessup 
Armstrong,  D.D.,  son  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Amzi  Armstrong, 
of  Mendham  and  Bloomfield.  Mr.  Armstrong  graduated  at 
Princeton   College   in    181 6;   studied   theology   under   his 

(237) 


238  HISTORY   OF   THE 

father,  and  for  a  year  in  the  Princeton  Seminary ;  and  upon 
his  licensure  in  1819  (by  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick) 
entered  on  two  years'  service  of  the  Board  of  Missions  in 
Virginia,  in  the  course  of  which  he  founded  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  Charlottesville.  Mr.  Armstrong  returned  to  New 
Jersey  in  1821,  and  on  the  twenty-eighth  September  he  was 
unanimously  elected  pastor  of  Trenton.^  On  the  twenty- 
seventh  November  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick,  meet- 
ing in  Trenton,  the  session  was  opened,  according  to  a  cus- 
tom then  prevailing,  with  Mr.  Armstrong's  trial  sermon  for 
ordination.  On  the  next  day,  together  with  Charles  Hodge 
and  Peter  O.  Studdiford,  he  was  ordained,  and  himself 
installed.^  At  this  service  Dr.  Miller  presided;  Rev.  George 
S.  Woodhull  preached  (2  Tim.  4  :  12) ;  Rev.  E.  F.  Cooley 
gave  the  charge  to  the  ministers,  and  Rev.  D.  Comfort  that 
to  the  congregation.  The  date  of  Mr.  Armstrong's  actual 
entrance  upon  the  duties  of  the  pastorate  is  October  20, 
1821. 

During  his  short  residence  of  about  two  and  a  half  years, 
fifty-three  new  communicants  were  received  on  their  pro- 
fession, and  fourteen  on  certificate. 

While  residing  here  Mr.  Armstrong  was  married  to 
Sarah  Milnor,  daughter  of  Lucius  Horatio  Stockton. 

When  Dr.  John  H.  Rice  was  called  to  relinquish  the 
church  at  Richmond,  Virginia,  he  recommended  Mr.  Arm- 
strong as  his  successor,  and  a  call  from  that  congregation 
was  put  into  his  hands  February  3,  1824 — the  same  day  on 
which  one  of  his  successors  in  Trenton  (James  W.  Alex- 
ander) was  received  by  the  Presbytery  as  a  candidate  for 
the  ministry.  At  the  following  April  meeting  the  pastor 
read  to  the  Presbytery  a  statement  he  had  previously  made 
to  the  Trenton  parish,  of  the  reasons  of  his  favorable  inclin- 
ation to  the  Richmond  call.  The  Rev.  Jared  D.  Fyler  (then 
residing  in  Trenton)  and  Joshua  Anderson,  one  of  the 
elders,  presented  a  written  statement  of  the  views  of  the 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  239 

people,  expressive  of  their  reluctant  submission  to  the 
wishes  of  their  pastor  in  the  matter,  and  accordingly  the 
dissolution  took  place. 

Dr."  Armstrong  remained  ten  years  in  Richmond,  when 
he  entered  the  service  of  the  American  Board  of  Commis- 
sioners for  Foreign  Missions,  first  as  agent,  then  as  secre- 
tary ;  and  it  v^as  on  his  passage  from  Boston  to  New  York, 
on  the  business  of  the  Board,  that  he  wias  wrecked  in  the 
steamboat  Atlantic,  November  27,  1846.  The  last  scene  of 
that  catastrophe  of  which  there  is  any  account  presents  him 
reading  the  Gospel,  praying  with,  exhorting  and  comforting 
his  fellow-passengers,  so  long  as  the  fatal  event  was  de- 
laying. 

The  characteristics  of  Dr.  Armstrong's  preaching  have 
been  stated  by  two  good  judges.  The  Rev.  Dr.  James  W. 
Alexander  wrote  to  the  compiler  of  his  Memoir : 

"While  he  was  at  Trenton  I  often  listened  to  his  sermons,  and  there 
was  no  man  whom  at  that  day  I  heard  with  more  impression.  His 
sermons  were  carefully  prepared,  and  were  pronounced  with  a  degree 
of  warmth  and  emotion  which  are  quite  unusual.  My  recollection  is 
vivid  of  his  appeals  to  the  heart,  as  being  of  a  high  order.  When  at 
a  later  period  I  was  called  to  labor  among  the  same  people,  I  found 
that  he  had  left  that  good  name  which  is  'better  than  precious  oint- 
ment.' There  were  manifest  tokens  of  his  faithfulness  in  public  and 
in  private." 

Mr.  Theodore  Frelinghuysen,  now  President  of  Rutgers 
College,  then  a  member  of  the  bar,  says  in  a  letter  in  185 1  : 

"I  very  often  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  hearing  him  while  he  was  a 
stated  minister  at  Trenton,  and  the  impression  made  upon  my  mind, 
deep  and  unfading,  was  that  of  uncommon  earnestness,  sincerity,  and 
power.  He  commenced  in  his  calm  and  solemn  manner ;  he  rose  with 
bis  subject;  his  mind  kindled  and  his  heart  warmed  as  he  discoursed; 
and  towards  the  conclusion  he  poured  his  whole  soul  into  it,  as  if  he 
thought  he  might  never  speak  again,  and  as  if  some  impenitent  friend 
"before  him  might  never  hear  again  the  voice  of  warning  and  the  invita- 
tions of  mercy."^ 


240  HISTORY   OF  THE 

The  Rev.  J.  C.  Smith,  of  Washington  City,  says :  "One  of 
our  own  elders  knew  him  as  a  pastor  in  Trenton,  and  he 
blesses  God  that  through  him  he  was  converted  to  God."*^ 

The  congregation  was  without  a  settled  pastor  for  about 
twenty  months,  when  having  united  in  the  choice  of  the 
Rev.  John  Smith,  of  Connecticut,  that  minister  began  to 
supply  the  pulpit  regularly  in  December,  1825.'''  He  was 
not  received  by  the  Presbytery  until  the  following  February ; 
and  on  the  eighth  March  he  was  both  ordained  and  installed 
in  Trenton.  In  that  service  Dr.  Carnahan  presided,  Dr. 
Hodge  preached  ( i  Cor.  1:21),  and  both  the  charges  were 
given  by  the  Rev.  E.  F.  Cooley.  Mr.  Smith  was  a  native 
of  Wethersfield ;  a  graduate  of  Yale  College  (1821)  and  of 
the  Andover  Theological  Seminary,  and  a  licentiate  of  the 
Congregational  Association  of  East  Fairfield. 

Mr.  Smith  continued  in  this  charge  less  than  three  years, 
but  in  that  time  fifty-nine  persons  made  their  first  profes- 
sion. Twenty-six  of  these  were  received  at  the  communion 
of  April,  1827;  two  of  whomi  afterwards  entered  the  min- 
istry, namely,  Mr.  George  Ely,  pastor  of  Nottingham  and 
Dutch  Neck,  who  died  August  14,  1856,  and  George  Bur- 
rowes,  D.D.,  pastor  of  Kirkwood,  in  Maryland;  Professor 
in  Lafayette  College,  and  pastor  in  Newtown,  Pennsylvania. 
One  of  eleven  new  communicants  in  April,  1828,  is  com- 
memorated in  the  following  inscription  in  our  church-yard : 

"Here  lie  the  remains  of  JkrEmiah  D.  Lalor,  who  departed  this  Hfe 
March  8th,  A.D.  1845,  aged  thirty-two  years.  To  those  who  knew 
him  the  remembrance  of  his  virtues  is  the  highest  eulogy  of  his  char- 
acter. He  had  devoted  himself  to  the  service  of  God  in  the  ministry 
of  reconciliation,  and  when  just  upon  the  threshold  of  the  sacred  office 
was  removed  by  death  from  the  brighest  prospects  of  usefulness,  ta 
serve  his  Maker  in  another  sphere." 

Some  confusion  was  created  during  Mr.  Smith's  ministry 
by  the  indiscreet,  however  sincere,  zeal  in  what  they  called 
the  cause  of  Christ,  of  two  or  three  superserviceable  min- 


REV.  JOHN  SMITH. 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  241 

isters  and  candidates,  who  wished  to  introduce  those  meas- 
ures for  the  promotion  of  the  work  of  a  pastor,  that  had, 
then  at  least,  the  apolo'gy  of  being  too  new  to  have  taught 
their  warning  lessons.  An  attempt  was  made  to  form  a 
distinct  congregation,  and  separate  meetings  were  held  for 
a  time,  and  even  a  small  building  erected,  which  was  put 
into  connection  with  the  Geniian  Reformed  Church ;  but 
the  Presbyterians  gradually  returned,  and  no  effort  was 
made,  or  probably  designed,  to  produce  a  schism.  Mr. 
Smith,  however,  in  August,  1828,  requested  a  dissolution  of 
the  pastoral  relation,  which  was  granted  by  the  Presbytery, 
and  in  February  of  the  next  year  he  was  detached  from  that 
body  and  took  charge  of  a  Congregational  Church  in  Ex- 
eter, New  Hampshire.  He  has  since  exercised  his  ministry 
in  Stamford  and  other  towns  of  Connecticut,  and  large 
numbers  have  become  united  with  the  churches  he  has 
served.  While  resident  in  Trentoii,  Mr.  Smith  was  married 
to  a  daughter  of  the  late  Aaron  D.  Woodruff,  Attorney- 
General  of  the  State. 

NOTES. 

I. 

During  Dr.  How's  residence  in  Trenton  several  useful  public  enter- 
prises were  undertaken,  in  which  he,  together  with  the  other  ministers 
of  the  town,  participated.  In  January,  1817,  he  was  of  the  committee 
(with  Colonels  Beatty,  Bayard,  and  Frelinghuysen,  and  Mr.  Wm. 
Coxe)  to  prepare  a  constitution  for  the  New  Jersey  Colonization 
Society,  then  formed.  In  1820,  the  Presbyterian  and  Episcopal  clergy- 
men were  associated  with  Samuel  L.  Southard,  George  Sherman, 
Charles  Ewing,  and  other  philanthropic  citizens,  in  encouraging  the 
institution  of  a  Savings  Bank.  The  same  persons  were  active  in  found- 
ing the  Apprentices'  Library  in  April,  1821,  and  Mr.  Ewing  delivered 
a  discourse  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  on  the  last  day  of  that  year, 
in  view  of  the  opening  of  the  Library  on  the  following  day.  In  1816 
"The  Female  Tract  Society  of  Trenton"  began  the  useful  ministry 
which  it  still  continues.  In  1822  the  ladies  of  the  congregation  formed 
a  "Missionary  and  Education  Society,"  which  met  once  a  fortnight  to 

16    PRES 


242  HISTORY   OF  THE 

provide  clothing  for  theological  students  and  for  children  at  mission 
stations.  Whilst  the  work  of  the  hands  was  going  on,  one  of  the 
ladies  read  missionary  intelligence.  Two  associations  for  the  circula- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  were  formed  in  1824;  in  May  "The  Apprentices' 
Bible  Society,"  of  which  Wm.  P.  Sherman  was  Secretary,  and  in 
August  "The  Bible  Society  of  Delaware  Falls,  Auxiliary  to  the  Ameri- 
can Bible  Society."  The  latter  was  organized  in  the  State  House,  and 
among  the  speakers  were  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Milnor,  of  New  York,  and 
"Mr.  Bethune,  a  theological  student." 

On  the  twenty-fourth  June,  1817,  died  Aaron  Dickinson  Wood- 
ruff, who  had  been  a  Trustee  from  May  4,  1789.^  He  was  born  Sep- 
tember 12,  1762;  delivered  the  Valedictory  at  the  Princeton  Com- 
mencement of  1779;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  1784;  was  made  Attorney- 
General  of  the  State  in  1793,  and  annually  reelected,  except  in  1811,  until 
his  death.  He  also  served  in  the  Legislature,  and  was  influential  in 
having  Trenton  selected  for  the  State  capital.  He  was  buried  in  the 
Trenton  church-yard,  where  his  epitaph  records  that, 

"For  twenty-four  year  he  filled  the  important  station  of  Attorney- 
General  with  incorruptible  integrity.  Adverse  to  legal  subtleties,  his 
professional  knowledge  was  exerted  in  the  cause  of  truth  and  justice. 
The  native  benevolence  of  his  heart  made  him  a  patron  of  the  poor,  a 
defender  of  the  fatherless;  it  exulted  in  the  joys,  or  participated  in 
the  sorrows  of  his  friends." 

Mr.  Woodruff's  successor  was  Samuel  L.  Southard,  who  signed 
the  triple  oath  required  by  the  charter,  (of  allegiance  to  the  State,  to 
the  United  States,  and  of  fidelity  as  a  trustee,)  May  ix,  1818.  Until 
called  from  Trenton,  in  1823,  to  the  cabinet  of  President  Monroe,  he 
was  one  of  the  most  punctual  and  active  officers  of  the  congregation. 
He  was  a  Manager  and  Vice-President  of  the  "Education  Society  of 
the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick,"  formed  in  1819,  and  a  Vice-Presi- 
dent in  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Prince- 
ton. Mr.  Southard's  public  life  as  Legislator,  Judge,  Attorney-General, 
and  Governor  in  his  own  State,  and  as  a  Senator,  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
and  President  of  the  Senate  at  Washington,  needs  no  record  here.  He 
died  in  Fredericksburg,  Virginia,  June  26,  1842,  at  the  age  of  fifty-five. 

The  name  of  Lucius  Horatio  Stockton  having  occurred  in  this 
chapter,  it  deserves  commemoration  as  that  of  a  prominent  member  of 
the  congregation  and  church.  He  was  a  son  of  Richard  Stockton,  the 
signer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  a  nephew  of  Elias 
Boudinot.  Mr.  L.  H.  Stockton  was  for  some  time  District-Attorney 
of  New  Jersey,  and  his  nomination  to  be  Secretary  of  War,  within  a 
few  weeks  (Jan.,  1801)  of  the  close  of  the  administration  of  President 
Adams,  was  one  of  the  causes  of  umbrage  to  Mr.  Jefferson.  He  died 
at  Trenton,   May  26,   1835.     Mr.   Stockton  was  eccentric,  and   a  very 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  243 

earnest  politician,  but  did  not  deserve  to  be  called  "a  crazy,  fanatical 
young  man,"  as  Wolcott  wrote.'  In  a  long  series  of  articles  in  the 
Trenton  Federalist  of  1803,  Mr.  L.  H.  Stockton  defends  himself  and 
his  deceased  uncle,  Samuel  Witham  Stockton,  from  attacks  in  the 
Democratic  True  American.  Mr.  S.  W.  Stockton  went  to  Europe  in 
1774,  and  was  Secretary  of  the  American  Commission  to  the  courts 
of  Austria  and  Prussia.  He  negotiated  a  treaty  with  Holland,  and 
returned  to  New  Jersey  in  1779,  where  he  held  various  pubHc  offices. 
In  1792  he  was  an  Alderman  of  Trenton;  in  1794  Secretary  of  State; 
and  his  monument  in  our  church-yard  records  that  he  died  June  27, 
1795,  (in  his  forty-third  year,)  in  consequence  of  being  "thrown  from 
his  chaise.""  The  Rev.  James  F.  Armstrong,  who  was  "long  on  the 
most  friendly  and  intimate  terms  with  him,"  preached  at  his  funeral 
from  I  Sam.  20 :  3. 

While  Dr.  How  was  pastor  another  of  the  prominent  citizens  of 
Trenton  and  members  of  this  church  was  removed  by  death.  Samuel 
Leake  was  born  in  Cumberland  county,  November  2,  1747.  He 
received  his  preparatory  training  in  the  two  celebrated  schools  of 
Fagg's  Manor  and  Pequea.  The  Rev.  John  Blair,  Dr.  R.  Smith,  and 
Enoch  Green  gave  him  certificates,  1767-9,  of  proficiency  in  different 
branches,  and  of  his  high  religious  character.  After  teaching  three 
years  in  Newcastle,  he  received  (May,  1772)  testimonials  from  Thomas 
McKean  and  George  Read  (two  of  the  three  Delaware  signers  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence),  George  Munro,  John  Thompson,  and 
the  Rev.  Joseph  Montgomery.  He  then  entered  Princeton  College, 
and  took  his  Bachelor's  degree  in  September,  1774.  In  the  following 
March  President  Witherspoon  gave  a  written  certificate  of  his  quali- 
fications to  teach  Greek,  Latin,  and  mathematics,  to  which  he  appended : 
"I  must  also  add  that  he  gave  particular  attention  to  the  English 
language  while  here,  and  is  probably  better  acquainted  with  its  struc- 
ture, propriety,  and  force  than  most  of  his  years  and  standing  in  this 
country." 

Mr.  Leake,  however,  did  not  resume  the  employment  of  teaching, 
but  entered  upon  the  study  of  the  law,  first  with  Richard  Howell,  Esq., 
afterwards  Governor  of  the  State,  and  then  with  Charles  Pettit,  Esq., 
of  Burlington,  and  with  their  certificates,  and  that  of  Thomas  McKean 
(afterwards  Governor  of  Pennsylvania),  he  was  licensed  as  an  attorney 
in  November,  1776.  He  began  practice  in  Salem,  but  in  October,  1785, 
removed  to  Trenton,  where  he  pursued  his  profession  so  successfully 
as  to  be  able  to  retire  before  he  was  enfeebled  by  age.  He  paid 
unusual  attention  to  the  students  in  his  office;  regularly  devoting  one 
hour  every  day  to  their  examination.  I  have  before  me  an  example 
of  his  systematic  ways,  in  a  document  engrossed  in  a  large  hand, 
beginning  thus : 

"I.  Be  it  remembered  that  Samuel  Leake,  on  Sunday,  the  thirteenth 
day  of  October,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 


244  HISTORY   OF   THE 

and  eleven,  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Trenton,  received  the  Lord's 
Supper;  James  F.  Armstrong  then  being  minister  of  the  Gospel  and 
administering  the   Supper  in  that  church." 

Entries  in  the  same  form,  with  the  proper  dates,  follow  as  to  each 
of  the  semi-annual  communions  until  October  i,  1815,  when  the  record 
is  that,  "Dr.  Miller  preached  the  Action  Sermon;  Dr.  Alexander  ad- 
ministered the  ordinance.  Mr.  Armstrong  was  sick  and  absent."  The 
paper  continues  to  make  a  formal  register  of  each  attendance  at  the 
Lord's  Supper  until  it  closes  with  that  on  January  2,  1820,  two  months 
before  his  decease.  He  prepared  similar  documents  for  each  of  his 
daughters  as  they  became  communicants.  Mr.  Leake  died  on  the 
eighth  of  March,  1820,  in  his  seventy-third  year.  The  Supreme  Court 
being  in  session  at  the  time,  the  bar  not  only  resolved  to  attend  the 
funeral,  but  recommended  to  their  brethren  throughout  the  State  to 
wear  the  customary  badge  of  respect.     His  epitaph  is  as  follov/s : 

"Sacred  to  the  memory  of  Samuel  Leake,  Esquire,  Sergeant  at  Law. 
Died  eighth  March,  A.  D.  1820,  A.  E.  ^2.  Educated  to  the  bar  he 
attained  the  highest  degree  of  eminence ;  distingtn'shed  for  candor, 
integrity,  zeal  for  his  clients  and  profound  knowledge  of  jurisprudence, 
he  fulfilled  the  duties  of  his  station  with  singular  usefulness,  'without 
fear  and  without  reproach.'  Deeply  versed  in  human  literature,  and 
devoutly  studious  of  the  words  of  sacred  truth;  he  lived  the  life  of 
a  Christian,  and  died  the  death  of  the  righteous. "^^ 

II. 

In  the  term  of  Dr.  Armstrong's  ministry  the  session  and  church 
were  painfully  concerned  with  a  public  afifair  in  which  one  of  their 
members  was  implicated.  Peter  Gordon,  Esq.  (who  was  elected  an 
elder  in  March,  1797,  and  a  Trustee  in  September,  1804),  after  eighteen 
j'ears'  tenure  of  the  office  of  State  Treasurer,  was  found  to  be  in 
default.  While  the  matter  was  in  course  of  investigation  by  the 
Legislature  (1821-2)  Mr.  Gordon  voluntarily  withdrew  from  the  com- 
munion, and  from  his  place  in  the  session,  but  was  restored  in  June, 
1825,  and  the  next  month  took  a  certificate  of  dismission  to  New  York. 

III. 

During  the  time  of  the  Rev.  John  Smith,  two  of  the  elders  of  the 
church  died. 

Benjamin  Hayden  was  in  the  session  in  September,  1806 — how 
long  previously  to  that  date  cannot  be  ascertained.  He  was  also  a 
Trustee  from  September,  181 1,  till  his  death,  which  took  place  Feb- 
ruary 28,  1827,  in  his  seventy-fourth  year.  This  venerable  and  excel- 
lent man  left  a  son  of  the  same  name,  who  died  a  member  of  this 
church,  April  11,  1858,  in  his  eighty-fifth  year. 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  245 

John  Beatty  was  a  son  of  the  Rev.  Charles  Beatty,  the  successor 
of  VVm.  Tennent,  at  Neshaminy.  His  mother  was  a  daughter  of 
Governor  Reading,  and  his  grandmother  was  of  the  family  of  Clinton, 
so  distinguished  in  the  history  of  New  York.  Mr.  Beatty  was  a 
native  of  Bucks  county;  graduated  at  Princeton  1769;  was  educated 
in  medicine  under  Dr.  Rush,  but  entered  the  army  of  the  Revolution, 
where  he  soon  became  a  Lieutenant-Colonel.  He  was  among  the  cap- 
tured at  Fort  Washington,  on  the  Hudson,  and  afterwards  rose  to  the 
rank  of  Major,  and  was  Commissary-General  of  prisoners.^^  After 
the  peace  he  practiced  medicine  in  Princeton,  and  was  Secretary  of 
the  New  Jersey  Medical  Society;  but  in  1783  and  other  years  was  in 
Congress;  in  1789  was  Speaker  of  the  State  Assembly;  and  from  1795 
to  1805  was  Secretary  of  State.  From  May,  1815,  until  his  death,  he 
was  President  of  the  Trenton  Banking  Company.  He  was  President 
of  the  company  which  built  the  noble  bridge  that  unites  Trenton  to 
his  native  county  in  Pennsylvania."  General  Beatty  was  a  Trustee 
of  the  church  from  1799  to  1804,  and  again  from  1822  till  his  death. 
He  was  received  to  the  communion  May,  1808;  ordained  to  the  elder- 
ship September,  1817,  at  the  same  time  with  James  Ewing,  Robert 
McNeely,  and  Joshua  Anderson."  Chief  Justice  Ewing  wrote  his 
■epitaph : 

"Sacred  to  the  memory  of  General  John  Beatty;  born  December  10, 
1749;  died  May  30,  1826.  Educated  as  a  physician,  he  became  early 
distinguished  for  benevolence,  assiduity,  and  skill.  In  the  War  of 
Independence,  in  important  military  stations,  he  faithfully  served  his 
country.  By  the  public  voice  he  was  called  to  the  discharge  of  emi- 
nent civil  offices.  In  the  State  and  National  Legislatures  repeatedly  a 
representative,  always  active  and  influential.  For  many  years  a  ruling 
elder  of  this  church.  In  every  walk  of  life  amiable,  honorable,  and 
useful.  He  crowned  the  virtues  of  the  man,  the  patriotism  of  the 
soldier,  and  the  sagacity  of  the  statesman  by  the  pure  piety  and  sin- 
cere religion  of  the  devout  and  humble  Christian." 

Colonel  Erkuries  Beatty,  of  Princeton,  was  a  brother  of  General 
Beatty,  and  father  of  C.  C.  Beatty,  D.D.,  of  Steubenville.  He  died 
in  Princeton,  February  2^,   1823. 


IV. 

In  the  summer  of  1821  the  Rev.  John  Summerfield,  the  English 
Methodist  preacher  whose  visit  to  this  country  produced  an  impres- 
sion still  vividly  retained  by  many  of  his  hearers,  passed  a  few  days 
in  Trenton,  and  occupied  the  Presbyterian  pulpit  for  two  successive 
evenings.  Abstracts  of  both  his  sermons  are  given  by  his  latest 
"biographer,  who  was  one  of  the  large  audience  that  crowded  the 
church.      He    says:      "Mr.    Summerfield    received    the    most    marked 


246  HISTORY    OF   THE 

attention  from  every  class  during  his  brief  stay  in  Trenton;  and 
though  suffering  all  the  while  from  sickness  (for  he  was  attacked 
the  day  after  his  arrival),  he  strove  to  entertain  and  edify  the  various 
company  that  sought  his  society."  "A  Nezv  Life  of  Summeriield,  by 
William  W.  Willett."     Philadelphia,  1857. 

The  most  notable  public  event  of  1824  was  the  visit  of  General 
Lafayette  to  the  United  States.  In  his  tour  he  arrived  in  Trenton  on 
Saturday,  the  twenty-fifth  of  September.  Next  morning  he  attended 
public  worship  in  our  church ;  afterwards^^  he  visited  Joseph  Bona- 
parte at  Bordentown,  and  returned  to  spend  the  night.  He  break- 
fasted here  again  July  16,  1825. 

President  Monroe  (who  was  wounded  in  the  battle  of  Trenton), 
on  his  tour  of  1817,  arrived  here  on  Saturday,  June  7th,  and  attended 
worship  the  next  day  in  the  Presbyterian  Church. 

V. 

James  Ewing,  father  of  the  Chief  Justice,  and  the  tenth  child  of 
Thomas  and  Mary  Ewing  (p.  218),  first  came  to  Trenton  as  a  repre- 
sentative of  Cumberland  county,  in  the  Legislature  in  1774,  and  re- 
moved his  residence  there  in  1779.  He  was  afterwards,  under  Con- 
gress, Auditor  of  Public  Accounts,  Commissioner  of  the  Continental 
Loan  Office  for  New  Jersey,  and  Agent  for  Pensions.  He  was  Mayor 
of  Trenton,  1797-1803.  For  some  years  he  was  a  partner  of  Isaac 
Collins  (p.  198)  in  merchandise,  and  there  is  a  letter  of  condolence 
from  him  to  Mr.  Collins,  on  the  death  of  his  wife,  in  the  Memoir  of 
Mr.  C.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Library  and  the  Academy. 
He  was  a  corporator,  commissioner,  and  secretary  of  the  Society  in- 
corporated March  15,  1796,  to  make  the  Assanpink  navigable  from 
the  "Trenton  Mills"  to  "the  place  where  it  intersects  the  stage  road 
from  Burlington  to  Amboy" ;  and  doubtless  was  in  the  company  who 
on  the  third  February,  1797,  descended  the  creek  in  the  boat  Hope, 
from  "Davidstown,"  where  the  upper  lock  was  situated,  to  Trenton,  in 
three  hours,  and  so  opened  one  half  of  the  proposed  line  of  naviga- 
tion.^" Mr.  Ewing  was  elected  a  Trustee  of  the  church  September  5, 
1808,  and  ordained  an  elder  September  21,  1817.  He  continued  in  both 
offices  until  his  death,  which  took  place  October  23,  1823.  In  accord- 
ance with  his  known  objections  to  the  practice,  no  stone  was  placed 
to  mark  the  spot  of  his  interment,  which  was  in  our  church-yard." 

VI. 

It  may  be  placed  among  the  miscellaneous  items  of  1828,  that  on 
the  fourteenth  July  the  church  was  struck  with  Hghtning;  but  the 
conductor  answered  its  purpose  so  well  that  no  mischief  was  done  be- 
yond the  shattering  of  a  few  panes  of  glass. 

In  October,  1827,  the  celebrated  Joseph  Lancaster  established  his 
residence  here,  and  opened  a  school.     In  the  next  year  a  girls'  school 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  247 

was  taught  by  Mrs.  Lancaster.  For  a  quarter  the  public  schools  were 
under  their  joint  direction.  Their  contract  was  to  teach  eighty  children 
for  one  year,  and  supply  books  and  stationery,  for  two  hundred  and 
seventy-five  dollars. 

In  October,  1828,  the  Synod,  meeting  in  Trenton,  united  in  a  general 
convention,  which  assembled  in  the  church,  Chief  Justice  Kirkpatrick 
presiding,  and  the  present  Chief  Justice  Green  being  Secretary.  A 
project  for  raising  forty  thousand  dollars  in  two  years,  for  erecting 
school-houses  and  supplying  teachers  and  missionaries  through  the 
State,  was  recommended,  as  were  also  the  objects  of  the  "General  Sab- 
bath Union,"  the  American  Temperance  Society,  and  the  Sunday- 
school  enterprise.  In  November,  1817,  a  convention  met  at  Trenton 
and  formed  a  State  Society  for  the  suppression  of  vice  and  the  pro- 
motion of  good  morals,  principally  by  aiding  the  civil  authorities  in 
executing  the  laws,  and  by  diffusing  a  knowledge  of  the  statutes  and 
their  penalties. 

VII. 

Copy  of  an  inscription  on  a  stone  in  the  pavement  of  the  church- 
porch  : 

"To  perpetuate  the  memory  and  the  modest  worth  of  Mrs.  Mary 
Dunbar,  this  marble  is  placed  over  her  grave,  a  tribute  of  the  grateful 
and  affectionate  remembrance  of  her  pupils,  whom  for  three  suc- 
cessive generations  as  school-mistress  she  had  taught  in  this  city.  Ever 
attentive  to  the  pious  nurture  of  her  pupils  in  private,  and  to  the  duties 
of  religion  in  public,  she  closed  an  exemplary  and  useful  life,  December 
9,  A.D.  1808 :  aged  76  years." 


REV.  JAMES  W.   ALEXANDER,   D.D. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

James  W.  Ai.Exander,  D.D. — John  W.  Yeomans,  D.D. 
— John  Haee,  D.D. 

1829 — 1859. 

The  successor  of  Mr.  Smith  was  the  Rev.  James  Wad- 
dee  AeExander;  who  graduated  at  the  Princeton  College 
in  1820;  entered  the  Seminary  1821 ;  was  licensed  1825; 
installed  at  Charlotte  Court  House,  Virginia,  1827,  and 
over  the  Trenton  Church,  February  11,  1829.  On  the  last 
occasion  Dr.  A.  Alexander  presided.  Dr.  Miller  preached 
(Matt.  4:19),  Rev.  Eli  F.  Cooley  and  Henry  Perkins  gave 
the  charges. 

The  services  of  this  pastorship  began  January  10,  1829, 
and  terminated  October  31,  1832;  during  which  period 
fifty-one  new  communicants  were  received,  and  thirty 
others  on  certificate.  Dr.  Alexander  having  complied  with 
a  request  which  I  made  of  all  the  ex-pastors  surviving  at 
the  time  of  preparing  this  volume,  for  such  reminiscences 
of  their  residence  here  as  would  come  within  the  scope  of 
my  work,  I  gladly  incorpoirate  his  letter  in  this  stage  oi 
the  narrative.^ 

"New  York,  February  10,  1859. 

"My  Dear  Friend:  The  retrospect  of  my  ministerial  life  brings  to 
view  so  many  defects,  and  such  unfruitfulness,  that  I  have  never  been 
able  to  take  pleasure  in  numbering  up  sermons  preached,  visits  made, 
and  members  added;  nor  have  I  any  anniversary  or  autobiographical 
discourses  to  which  I  could  refer.  At  your  request,  however,  I  can 
not  refuse  to  give  you  a  few  reminiscences  of  my  connection  with 
the  church  of  which  you  are  the  pastor. 

"A  great  intimacy  subsisted  between  my  father  and  our  predecessor, 
the  Rev.  James  F.  Armstrong,  and  the  friendship  between  their  re- 

(249) 


250  HISTORY   OF   THE 

spective  descendants  continues  to  this  day.  Mr.  Armstrong  had  been 
the  friend  of  Witherspoon,  Smith  and  Kollock.  He  was  laid  aside 
from  preaching  by  a  disabling  and  distressing  rheumatism,  before  I 
ever  entered  his  delightful  and  hospitable  house— rich  in  good  books, 
good  talk,  and  good  cheer — where  old  and  young  were  alike  made 
welcome  and  happy.  But  this  brought  me  acquainted  with  Trenton, 
with  that  family,  and  especially  with  Chief  Justice  Ewing,  by  whose 
means  and  influence,  more  than  any  other,  I  was  afterwards  led  to 
settlement  among  them.  The  family  of  Mr.,  afterwards  Judge,  Ewing, 
was  the  home  of  my  childhood  and  youth ;  which  led  that  distinguished 
and  excellent  man  to  look  upon  my  early  performances  in  the  pulpit 
with  undue  partiality.  By  him,  and  by  the  late  General  SamuEl  R. 
Hamilton,  who  was  a  Princeton  man,  my  name  was  brought  before 
the  congregation,  and  I  was  installed  as  their  pastor,  by  a  committee 
of  Presbytery,  on  the  eleventh  day  of  February,  1829.  I  had,  however, 
begun  my  labors  with  them  on  the  tenth  of  January,  when  I  preached 
from  I  Cor.  11  :  28.  My  strictly  pastoral  labors  ended  on  the  last 
day  of  October,  1832.  when  I  preached  from  Ezekiel  16  :  61,  62^ 
though  I  continued  to  supply  the  pulpit  until  the  end  of  the  year. 
My  term  of  settlement  may  therefore  be  called  four  years.  The 
records  of  the  Church  session  will  show  the  number  of  accessions  to 
the  communion  of  the  church;  these  were  few.  There  was  nothing 
like  a  revival  of  religion  during  my  continuance  with  them,  and  it  was 
cause  of  painful  thought  to  me  that  my  labors  were  so  little  owned 
to  the  awakening  of  sinners.  Neither  am  I  aware  that  there  was  any 
remarkable  addition  to  the  number  of  hearers.  But  the  people  were 
forbearing  and  affectionate  towards  their  young  and  inexperienced 
minister,  who  for  most  of  the  time  was  feeble  in  health,  and  was  sub- 
jected, as  you  know,  to  some  unusual  afflictions  in  regard  to  his  early 
children. 

"In  those  days  we  worshipped  in  the  old  church,  which  was  suffici- 
ently capacious,  with  one  of  the  old-time  high  pulpits.  The  congrega- 
tion had  been  trained  to  habits  of  remarkable  punctuality  and  atten- 
tion. Notwithstanding  some  inroads  of  new  measures  during  the 
previous  period,  under  the  labors  of  a  so-called  Evangelist,  the  church 
was  as  sound  and  staid  a  Presbyterian  body  as  I  have  ever  seen.  It 
comprised  some  excellent  and  experienced  Christians,  and  among  these 
the  valued  elders  whose  names  you  have  recorded.  Good  Mr.  Mc- 
Neely  was  slow  but  sure;  an  upright  man,  of  more  kindness  than 
appeared  at  first ;  of  little  vivacity,  and  no  leaning  towards  risks  or 
innovation.  Mr.  Voorhees  and  Mr.  Samuel  Brearley  came  later  into 
the  session;  both,  in  my  judgment,  judicious  and  godly  men.  Mrs. 
Armstrong,  the  venerable  relict  of  the  pastor  first  named,  does  not 
belong  particularly  to  my  part  of  the  narrative,  except  that  she  chose 
to  treat  me  with  the  regard  of  a  mother  for  a  son.  She  was  then  in 
health  and  strength,  and  lived  to  exhibit  a  dignified,  serene,  and  beauti- 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  251 

ful  old  age.  Having  come  of  a  distinguished  family,  the  Livingstons 
of  New  York,  she  never  ceased  to  gather  around  her  fireside  some  of 
the  most  elegant  and  cultivated  society.  Her  conversation,  though 
quiet,  was  instructive,  turning  often  upon  the  heroes  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. She  was,  I  think,  at  Princeton  during  the  battle;  indeed  she 
was  a  native  of  that  town.  From  that  excellent  family  I  received 
support  and  encouragement  of  the  most  useful  and  delicate  kind,  during 
a  time  of  manifold  trials.  My  term  of  service  was  marked  by  no 
striking  external  events,  no  great  enlargement,  excitement,  or  disaster. 
The  long-sufifering  of  God  was  great  towards  a  timid  and  often  dis- 
heartened servant,  who  remembers  the  period  with  mingled  thankful- 
ness and  humiliation. 

"At  this  time  the  Trenton  church  contained  some  excellent  speci- 
mens of  solid,  instructed,  old-school  Presbyterianism.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  lessons  which  it  was  my  privilege  to  receive  from  aged 
and  experienced  Christians,  who  must  often  have  looked  with  wonder 
and  pity  on  the  young  minister  who  undertook  the  responsible  task 
of  guiding  them.  The  dying  scenes  which  a  pastor  beholds  in  his 
early  years  make  a  deep  impression;  and  I  recall  some  which  were 
very  edifying,  and  which  attested  the  power  of  the  doctrines  which 
had  been  inculcated.  Among  my  most  valued  parishioners  was  a 
man  in  humble  life,  who  has  lately  gone  to  his  rest,  I  mean  James 
Pollock.  At  a  later  day  he  was  most  wisely  made  an  elder.  At  that 
time  he  lived  in  a  small  house  on  Mill  Hill,  and  worked  as  a  dyer 
in  one  of  the  woolen  factories  on  the  Assanpink.  His  figure  was 
somewhat  bent,  and  his  hands  were  always  blue,  from  the  colors  used 
in  his  trade.  But  his  eye  was  piercing  and  eloquent ;  his  countenance 
would  shine  like  a  lantern  from  the  light  within ;  and  the  flame  of  his 
strong  and  impassioned  thought  made  his  discourse  as  interesting  as 
I  ever  heard  from  any  man.  He  had  the  texts  of  Scripture,  as  many 
Scotchmen  have,  at  his  finger  ends,  and  could  adduce  and  apply  pas- 
sages in  a  most  unexpected  manner.  The  great  Scottish  writers  were 
familiar  to  him.  I  think  his  favorite  uninspired  volume  was  Ruther- 
ford's 'Christ  Dying  and  Drawing  Sinners  to  Himself.'  I  lent  him 
Calvin's  Institutes,  which  he  returned  with  expressions  of  high  admira- 
tion for  Mr.  Caulvin.  His  acquaintance  with  the  reformation  his- 
tory of  his  native  land,  in  both  its  great  periods,  was  remarkable, 
being  such  as  would  have  done  credit  to  any  learned  clergyman. 
Unlike  many  who  resembled  him  in  attainment,  Mr.  Pollock  was 
inwardly  and  deeply  affected  by  the  truths  which  he  knew.  His  speech 
was  always  seasoned  with  salt,  and  I  deemed  it  a  means  of  grace  to 
listen  to  his  ardent  and  continuous  discourse.  He  was  certainly  a 
great  talker,  but  without  assumption  or  any  wearying  of  competent 
hearers.  His  dialect  was  broad,  west-country  Scotch,  for  he  was 
from  Beith,  in  Ayrshire ;  and  while  I  was  resident  his  sense  of  the 


252  HISTORY   OF   THE 

peculiarity  kept  him  from  praying  in  the  meetings,  though  none  could 
otherwise  have  been  more  acceptable.  Having  from  my  childhood 
been  used  to  Scotch  Presbyterians,  and  knowing  how  some  of  the 
narrower  among  them  will  stickle  for  every  pin  of  the  covenanted 
tabernacle,  and  every  shred  and  token,  as  if  ordained  in  the  decalogue, 
I  was  both  surprised  and  delighted  to  observe  how  large-minded  Mr. 
Pollock  was,  in  respect  to  every  improvement,  however  different  from 
the  ways  of  his  youth.  I  have  witnessed  his  faith  during  grievous 
illnesses,  and  I  rejoice  to  know  that  he  was  enabled  to  give  a  clear 
dying  testimony  for  the  Redeemer  whom  he  loved.  Such  are  the  men 
who  are  the  glory  of  our  Presbyterian  churches. 

"During  the  term  of  my  incumbency  it  is  remarkable  that  the  two 
persons  who  had  most  influence  in  congregational  affairs  were  not 
communicants,  though  they  were  closely  connected  with  all  that  occur- 
red in  the  church ;  these  were  Chief  Justice  Ewing  and  Mr.  Southard, 
afterwards  Secretary  of  the  Navy.  It  deserves  to  be  noted,  among 
the  traits  of  a  Presbyterianism  which  is  passing  away,  that  Judge 
Ewing,  as  a  baptized  member  of  the  church,  always  pleaded  his  rights, 
and  once  in  a  public  meeting  declared  himself  amenable  to  the  disci- 
pHne  of  church  courts.  (Discipline,  chap,  i,  §  6,  page  456.)  There 
is  good  reason  to  believe  that  he  was  a  subject  of  renewing  grace 
long  before  his  last  illness  in  1832.  During  this  brief  period  of  suffer- 
ing he  made  a  distinct  and  touching  avowal  of  his  faith  in  Christ. 

"Judge  Ewing  is  justly  reckoned  among  the  greatest  ornaments  of 
the  New  Jersey  bar.  His  acquaintance  with  his  own  department  of 
knowledge  was  both  extensive  and  profound,  closely  resembling  that 
of  the  English  black-letter  lawyers,  who  at  this  moment  have  as  many 
imitators  at  the  New  Jersey  bar  as  anywhere  in  America.  He  was 
eminently  conservative  in  Church  and  State ;  punctual  in  adherence  to 
rule  and  precedent,  incapable  of  being  led  into  any  vagaries,  sound 
in  judgment,  tenacious  of  opinion,  indefatigable  in  labor,  and  incor- 
ruptibly  honest  and  honorable,  so  as  to  be  proverbially  cited  all  over 
the  State.  In  a  very  remarkable  degree  he  kept  himself  abreast  of 
the  general  literature  of  the  day,  and  was  even  lavish  in  regard  to 
the  purchase  of  books.  He  was  a  truly  elegant  gentleman,  of  the 
old  school ;  an  instructive  and  agreeable  companion,  and  a  hospitable 
entertainer.  He  deserves  to  be  named  in  any  record  of  the  church, 
for  I  am  persuaded  that  there  was  no  human  being  to  whom  its 
interests  were  more  dear.  As  the  warm  and  condescending  friend 
of  my  boyhood  and  youth,  he  has  a  grateful  tribute  from  my  revering 
affection. 

"In  one  particular  the  people  of  Trenton  were  more  observant  of  our 
Eorm  of  Government  (see  chap,  xxi)  than  is  common.  When  from 
any  cause  there  was  no  one  to  preach,  the  service  was  nevertheless 
carried  on  by  the  elders,  according  to  the  book,  and  a  sermon  was 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  253 

read.  The  reader  on  these  occasions  was  always  Mr.  Ewing,  and  the 
discourse  which  he  selected  was  always  one  of  Witherspoon's ;  the 
choice  in  both  cases  being  significant.  I  have  often  been  led  to  con- 
sider how  much  better  this  is,  for  instance  in  country  congregations, 
than  the  rambling  away  to  hear  some  ignorant  haranguer,  perhaps 
of  an  erroneous  sect,  or  the  listening  to  a  frothy  exhortation  from 
soine  zealous  and  forward  brother,  without  gifts  and  without  au- 
thority. 

"The  name  of  Dr.  Francis  A.  Ewing,  son  of  the  Chief  Justice, 
naturally  occurs  to  our  thoughts  here.  Space  is  not  allowed  for  that 
extended  notice  which  might  elsewhere  be  proper,  for  the  Doctor's 
was  a  character  well  deserving  close  study.  Though  a  professional 
man  by  title,  he  was  in  fact  and  of  choice  much  more  a  man  of 
letters  and  a  recluse  student  of  science.  His  attainments  were  large 
and  accurate,  though  made  in  an  irregular  way,  and  though  he  never 
seemed  to  others  to  be  studying  at  all.  In  the  classical  languages,  in 
French,  in  the  natural  sciences,  and  in  all  that  concerns  elegant 
literature  and  the  fine  arts,  he  was  singularly  full  and  accurate.  In 
matters  of  taste  he  was  cultivated,  correct,  and  almost  fastidious. 
Music  was  his  delight,  and  he  was  equally  versed  in  the  science  and 
the  art.  It  was  after  the  terrru  of  my  pastorship  that  he  developed 
his  skill  as  an  organist,  but  at  a  much  earlier  day  he  devoted  himself 
for  years  to  the  gratuitous  instruction  of  the  choir;  and  though  I 
have  heard  many  noted  precentors,  I  can  remember  none  who  had 
greater  power  of  adaptation  and  expression.  Though  his  own  voice 
was  slender  and  uninviting,  he  long  made  his  influence  felt  in  ren- 
dering all  that  was  musical  subservient  to  the  spirit  of  worship. 

"Dr.  Ewing  professed  his  faith  in  Christ  during  my  years  of  min- 
istry. His  early  religious  exercises  were  very  deep  and  searching, 
and  the  change  of  his  affections  and  purposes  was  marked.  He  had 
peculiarities  of  temper  and  habit  which  kept  him  much  aloof  from 
general  society,  and  thus  abridged  his  influence.  His  likes  and  dis- 
likes were  strong,  and  if  he  had  more  readily  believed  the  good  will 
of  others  towards  himself,  he  would  have  been  more  useful  and  more 
happy.  I  should  sin  against  truth  if  I  did  not  say  that  towards  me 
he  was  for  forty  years  a  warm,  forbearing,  tender,  and  at  times  most 
efficient  friend.  I  have  been  with  him  at  junctures  when  it  was  im- 
possible not  to  detect,  through  all  his  extraordinary  reserve,  the  work- 
ings of  a  heart  agitated  and  swayed  by  gracious  principle. 

"Samuel  L.  Southard  was  also  a  member  of  the  congregation,  and 
a  friend  of  all  that  promised  its  good.  More  sprightly  and  versatile 
than  Mr.  Ewing,  he  resembled  a  tropical  tree  of  rapid  growth.  Few 
men  ever  attained  earlier  celebrity  in  New  Jersey.  This  perhaps  tended 
to  produce  a  certain  character  which  showed  itself  in  good-natured 
egotism.    Mr.  Southard  was  a  man  of  genius  and  eloquence,  who  made 


254  HISTORY   OF   THE 

great  impressions  on  a  first  interview,  or  by  a  single  argument.  He 
loved  society,  and  shone  in  company.  His  entertainments  will  be  long 
remembered  by  the  associates  of  his  youth.  It  is  not  my  province  to 
speak  of  his  great  efforts  at  the  bar;  he  was  always  named  after  Stock- 
ton, Johnson,  and  Ewing,  and  with  Frelinghuysen,  Williamson,  Wood 
and  their  coevals.  Having  been  bred  under  the  discipline  of  Dr.  Fin- 
ley,  at  Basking  Ridge,  he  was  thoroughly  versed  in  Presbyterian  doc- 
trine and  ways ;  loving  and  preferring  this  branch  of  the  Church  to  the 
day  of  his  death.  Defection  from  its  ranks  gave  him  sincere  grief,  as  I 
am  ready  more  largely  to  attest,  if  need  be.  In  those  days  of  his  prime, 
Mr.  Southard  was  greatly  under  the  salutary  influence  of  the  Chief 
Justice,  who  was  his  Mentor;  I  think  he  felt  the  loss  of  this  great 
man  in  some  important  points.  So  earnestly  and  even  tenderly  did  he 
yield  himself  to  divine  impressions,  that  his  friends  confidently  ex- 
pected that  he  would  become  a  communicant.  During  this  period  he 
was  an  ardent  advocate  of  the  Temperance  Society,  then  in  its  early 
stage.  I  remember  attending  a  meeting  at  Lawrenceville,  in  company 
with  my  learned  friend,  the  present  Chief  Justice,  where  Mr.  Southard, 
following  Mr.  Frelinghuysen,  made  an  impassioned  address  in  favor  of 
abstinence  and  the  pledge.  In  regard  to  religious  things,  the  change 
to  Washington  did  not  tend  to  increased  soleinnity  or  zeal.  I  have  been 
informed  that  Mr.  Southard  felt  the  deep  impression  of  divine  truth 
at  the  close  of  his  days.  As  a  young  minister,  I  received  from  him  the 
affectionate  forbearance  of  an  elder  brother,  and  I  shall  always  cherish 
his  memory  with  love. 

"Before  closing  this  hurried  letter  of  reminiscences,  let  me  note  that 
the  ruling  elders  during  my  day  were  Robert  McNeely,  Nathaniel  Bur- 
rowes,  John  Voorhees,  and  Samuel  Brearley,  all  good  and  believing 
men,  and  all  gone  to  the  other  world.  The  Trustees  were  Messrs.  Rose, 
Chambers,  Ewing,  Burroughs,  and  Fish ;  of  whom  likewise  all  are  gone, 
except  my  esteemed  friends,  Messrs.  Burroughs  and  Fish. 

"Before  taking  my  pen  from  the  paper,  let  it  be  permitted  to  me  to 
give  expression  to  a  feeling  of  personal  regard  to  the  late  Mrs.  Rice 
and  her  family,  under  whose  roof  my  years  of  early  ministry  in  Tren- 
ton were  passed.  She  was  a  woman  of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit,  and 
was  honored  and  beloved,  during  a  long  life,  for  the  benignity  of  her 
temper  and  the  kindliness  of  her  words.  Juliette  Rice,  her  daughter, 
was  a  person  who  in  some  circumstances  would  have  become  distin- 
guished. To  sincere  piety  she  added  more  than  usual  cultivation, 
delicacy  of  taste,  refinement  of  manners,  and  a  balance  of  good  qualities 
which  elevated  her  to  a  place  among  the  most  accomplished  and  even 
the  exclusive.  Under  the  disadvantage  of  a  deafness  almost  total,  and 
a  pulmonary  disease  which  slowly  wasted  her  away,  she  manifested  a 
sweet,  uncomplaining  disposition,  and  a  steady  faith  in  Christ.  Amidst 
the  kindnesses  of  these  good  people   I   spent  the  first  months  of  my 


REV.  JOHN  WILLIAM  YEOMANS.  D.D. 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  255 

married  life,  and  welcomed  the  tender  mercies  of  God  in  our  first-born 
son,  long  since  taken  to  be  with  the  Lord. 

"Thus  I  end  my  rambling  letter,  (which,  by-the-by,  is  only  the  last 
article  of  an  epistolary  series  extending  through  forty  years,)  and  am, 
as  always, 

"Your  faithful  friend, 

"James  W.  Ai<exandee.^ 
"The  Rev.  Dr.  Hall." 

For  nearly  two  years  after  Mr.  Alexander's  removal  the 
pulpit  was  supplied  by  transient  ministers.  Among  those 
who  were  most  frequently  engaged  were  the  Rev.  Asahel 
Nettleton  and  Truman  Osborn.  The  minutes  of  Presbytery 
for  1834  and  1835  show  that  efforts  were  then  proposed 
by  some  of  the  congregation  for  enlarging  the  means  of 
religious  instruction,  either  by  employing  an  Evangelist  or 
the  erection  of  a  Free  Church.  An  "Evangelical  Society" 
had  been  formed  which  sustained  Mr.  Osborn  as  a  mission- 
ary in  Trenton,  Morrisville  and  Millham,  but  after  his  de- 
parture, and  the  settlement  of  a  pastor,  things  gradually 
returned  to  their  old  channel. 

On  the  sixteenth  March,  1834,  the  Rev.  Symmes  C. 
Henry,  of  Cranbury,  was  chosen  pastor,  but  he  declined 
the  call.  On  the  sixth  of  June,  following,  the  Rev.  John 
William  Yeomans  was  elected,  being  then  pastor  of  a 
Congregational  Church  in  Pittsfield,  Massachusetts.  Dr. 
Yeomans  is  a  graduate  of  Williams  College  (1824)  and  of 
the  Andover  Seminary.^  He  was  duly  received  by  Pres- 
bytery, and  on  the  seventh  October,  1834,  was  installed. 
In  that  service  the  Rev.  David  Comfort  presided,  the  Rev. 
J.  W.  Alexander  preached  (from  i  Cor.  11:  i)  and  Drs. 
E.  H.  Rice  and  A.  Alexander  gave  the  charges.  The  actual 
ministry  of  Dr.  Yeomans  is  to  be  dated  from  September 
II,  1834,  to  June  I,  1841,  when  he  entered  on  the  Presidency 
of  Lafayette  College,  Pennsylvania.  To  his  energy  and 
influence  not  less  than  to  the  enterprise  of  the  congregation 
is  owing  the  erection  of  the  commodious  church  which  is 
now  occupied  by  the  congregation.     The  corner-stone  of 


256  HISTORY   OF   THE 

the  new  building  was  laid  May  2,  1839,  and  services  were 
held  for  the  first  time  on  the  Lord's  day,  January  19,  1840/* 
On  the  afternoon  of  that  day  Dr.  How  preached,  and  Dr. 
A.  Alexander  administered  the  Lord's  Supper.  On  that 
occasion  also  three  elders  and  three  deacons  were  ordained.^ 
In  the  evening  the  Rev.  J.  W.  Alexander  preached. 

In  the  April  of  1837  a  church  was  organized  by  a  commit- 
tee of  Presbytery  in  Bloomsbury,  then  a  suburb  of  Trenton, 
and  the  place  of  worship  was  the  building  erected  by  those 
who  followed  the  Rev.  Wm.  Boswell  in  his  secession  from 
the  regular  Baptist  denomination,  and  which  was  vacated 
upon  his  death  in  1833.  This  mission  was  diligently  con- 
ducted for  a  year  by  the  Rev.  Charles  Webster,*^  begin- 
ning on  the  second  Sabbath  of  1837,  and  was  then  sus- 
pended until  the  present  "Second  Church"  of  Trenton  was 
fonned  there. 

Dt.  Yeomans  had  a  seat  in  the  General  Assembly  of 
1837,  when  the  decisive  acts  were  adopted  which  resulted 
in  the  division  familiarly  known  as  the  Old  School  and 
New  School — the  latter  portion  fonning  a  distincct  organi- 
zation. No  disturbance  was  produced  in  the  Trenton  con- 
gregation by  this  revolution ;  with  entire  unity  it  remained 
in  the  ancient  fraternity  of  the  churches  of  the  New  Bruns- 
wick Presbytery.  In  the  letter  written  at  my  solicitation, 
Dr.  Yeomans,  after  mentioning  separately  the  elders  already 
introduced  in  this  chapter  as  composing  the  session  of  his 
time,  thus  proceeds: 

"As  then  constituted,  the  session  was  in  all  respects  the  most  inter- 
esting one  I  have  ever  known.  It  was  a  great  pleasure  and  benefit 
to  be  with  them  in  our  frequent  meetings  (sometimes  held  every 
week).  I  remember  those  brethren  with  grateful  respect  and  love, 
and  for  their  services  in  the  Church  can  commend  themi,  as  I  have 
always  done,   for  an   example. 

"The  erection  of  the  new  house  of  worship  was  an  interesting  occa- 
sion for  that  congregation.  The  whole  process  was  conducted  in  a 
manner  and  spirit  unusually  commendable.  The  congregation  felt 
the  awakening  enterprise  of  their  venerable  city,  and  the  moment  the 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN    CHURCH.  257 

business  of  the  place  showed  signs  of  revival,  they  were  ready  to 
conduct  the  motion  into  their  measures  for  religious  improvement. 
The  building  of  the  church  fairly  led  the  way  to  the  construction 
of  tasteful  architecture  in  the  place.  The  Court  House  was  built  at 
the  same  time,  but  the  draft  of  the  Church  helped  to  determine  the 
form  of  that ;  and  the  row  of  cottages  beyond  the  canal,  and  some 
other  handsome  dwellings  which  followed  in  the  course  of  improve- 
ment, were  built  by  the  men  who  came  there  to  build  the  church. 

"I  shall  never  forget  the  cordial  and  earnest  way  the  Trustees  and 
others  of  the  congregation,  and  indeed  the  whole  body,  engaged  in 
the  work.  I  have  scarcely  known  a  people  who  resolved  to  appro- 
priate so  much  to  the  erection  of  a  house  of  worship  in  proportion 
to  their  means  at  the  time.  They  went  through  the  work  without 
one  case  of  personal  disaffection  arising  out  of  their  proceedings,  and 
their  zeal  and  labor  have  since  proved  a  great  blessing  to  them  and 
to  others.  It  is  also  a  gratification  to  remember  the  harmony  and 
energy  with  which,  when  they  got  ready,  they  paid  off  the  debt;  and 
with  what  liberality  they  have  supported  their  minister,  and  con- 
tributed to  the  extension  of  Christian  influence  in  their  growing  and 
important  city.  I  consider  the  history  of  that  house  of  worship,  from 
first  to  last,  a  very  great  credit  to  the  congregation. 

"We  had  during  my  ministry  there  no  occasion  which  was  signal- 
ized as  a  revival.  The  accessions  to  full  communion  were,  if  I  rightly 
remember,  more  or  less  at  every  sacramental  celebration  of  the  Sup- 
per. Sometimes,  perhaps  the  records  will  show,  twenty  or  thirty  in 
a  year ;  perhaps  even  on  a  single  occasion  twenty.'^ 

"It  was  probably  one  of  the  defects  of  my  labors  there,  that  they 
were  attended  with  so  few  striking  results.  But  many  are  far  more 
decisive  than  I  am  inclined  to  be,  in  aiming  at  the  kind  of  awaken- 
ings which  are  frequent  in  some  parts  of  the  Church,  and  published 
with  so  much  avidity  in  the  papers.  But  the  fact  in  the  history  of 
my  ministry  in  Trenton  is  as  stated  above.  The  duties  of  the  pulpit, 
though  very  imperfect,  were  performed  with  very  few  interruptions 
through  the  period ;  and  the  excellent  spirit  and  active  co-operation 
of  the  session  were  a  great  help  to  the  efficacy  of  the  divine  ordi- 
nances. 

"Among  the  signs  of  improvement  which  appeared  during  that 
term,  was  that  of  increased  attention  to  the  baptism  and  religious 
training  of  children.  The  subject,  when  brought  up  in  public  instruc- 
tion and  private  conversation,  appeared  acceptable  and  profitable.  In 
following  up  the  labors  of  Brother  Alexander  there,  I  recollect  no 
evidence  of  improvement  with  more  interest  than  that.  As  to  general 
progress,  the  growing  activity  and  intelligence  of  the  leading  members 
of  the  congregation,  together  with  the  increase  of  their  number,  would 
enable   any   discerning   observer   to    foresee   the  progress   made   there 

17   PRES 


258  HISTORY   OF   THE 

since,  under  the  incitements  of  a  growing  population,  and  of  expand- 
ing business,  and  the  impulse  and  guidance  of  a  faithful  and  effective 
ministry." 

On  the  third  May,  1841,  the  congregation  unanimously 
resolved  to  recall  Dr.  Alexander,  who  was  still  in  the  pro- 
fessorship in  the  College  at  Princeton,  to  which  he  had  been 
transferred  from  his  charge  in  Trenton;  but  upon  being 
assured  that  it  would  not  be  in  his  power  to  comply,  it  was 
prosecuted  no  further.  A  new  election  on  the  last  day  of 
May  resulted  in  the  choice  of  Mr.  John  Hali^,  of  Phila- 
delpia,  who  immediately  took  charge  of  the  congregation, 
and  was  both  ordained  and  installed  August  11,  1841.  The 
Rev.  Dr.  Cooley  presided.  Dr.  Yeomans  preached  (Ephe- 
sians  4:  11^),  Dr.  J.  W.  Alexander  and  Dr.  S.  C.  Henry 
gave  the  charges.^ 

The  incidents  of  the  last  eighteen  years'  history  of  the 
Church  in  Trenton  must  be  despatched  in  a  few  particulars. 

The  statistics  are  as  follows: 

Communicants  received  on  examination,   217 

Communicants  received  by  certificate,   262 

Communicants  dismissed  by  certificate,   262 

Present  number  of  communicants,    312 

Infants   baptized,    290 

Adults  baptized,    114 

Funerals,    335 

Marriages,     216 

The  Brick  Church,  already  spoken  of  as  once  occupied  by 
Mr.  Boswell's  congregation,  was  purchased,  refitted,  and 
opened  for  public  worship  with  a  sermon  by  Professor  Al- 
bert B.  Dod,  July  24,  1842.  The  Second  Presbyterian 
Church  was  organized  there  November  15,  1842,  and  the 
Rev.  Baynard  R.  Hall  was  its  first  stated  supply.  The  Rev. 
Daniel  Deruelle,  of  Pennsylvania,  was  installed  its  pastor 
May  21,  1843.  I^  September  of  the  same  year  a  small 
lecture-room  was  built  adjoining  that  church.     Mr.  Deru- 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  259 

elle's  pastoral  relation  was  dissolved  February  i,  1848,  and 
on  the  ninth  October  the  Rev.  Ansley  D.  White,  of  Indiana, 
was  installed.  In  185 1  the  church  was  enlarged  to  twice  its 
original  size,  and  was  reopened  September  27.  In  1857  a 
spacious  building  was  erected,  of  two  stories,  for  a  lecture- 
room:  and  Sunday-schools.  The  church  was  organized  with 
eleven  mlembers  from  the  First  Church ;  the  present  number 
of  communicants  is  two  hundred  and  sixty-five. 

In  the  year  1846  there  remained  a  debt  of  six  thousand 
seven  hiuidred  dollars  for  the  building  oi  the  First  Church. 
By  a  general  subscription  in  the  congregation  at  the  close  of 
that  year,  the  entire  sum  was  at  once  obtained,  and  all 
obligations  cancelled. 

In  April,  1849.  thirteen  communicants  oi  the  First 
Church,  and  four  from;  other  churches,  were  organized  as 
the  Third  Church.  Twenty-five  others  from  the  parent 
body  were  soon  afterwards  added.  The  new  congregation 
first  met  for  public  worship  June  17,  1849.  '^^^  Rev. 
Theodore  L.  Cuyler  was  installed  pastor  October  3,  1849, 
and  their  house  of  worship  was  opened  November  7,  1850. 
Mr.  Cuyler  resigned  the  charge  April  27,  1853,  and  the 
Rev.  Jacob  Kirkpatrick,  Jr.,  was  ordained,  and  installed 
November  3,  1853.  The  decline  of  his  health  compelled  his 
resignation  February  2,  1858.  The  communicants  then 
numbered  about  two  hundred.  A  parsonage  was  provided 
during  Mr.  Kirkpatrick's  incumbency.  On  the  eighth  of 
February,  1859,  the  Rev.  Henry  B.  Chapin,  of  Ohio,  was 
installed  as  pastor. 

A  mission  chapel,  built  (at  the  cost  of  twenty-two  hun- 
dred dollars)  in  the  northen  extremity  of  the  city,  on 
ground  given  by  Mr.  John  S.  Chambers,  was  opened  for 
religious  services  January  8,  1854,  and  a  Sunday-school 
organized.  Worship  was  conducted  on  the  afternoons  of 
the  Sabbath  by  the  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  with  occa- 
sional assistance,  until  May,  1856,  when  Mr.  John  H. 
Sargent  served  statedly  as  the  chaplain  for  one  year. 


26o  HISTORY   OF   THE 

In  1853  the  First  Church  was  extensively  improved  by 
the  building  of  an  iron  fence  and  laying  a  stone  pavement 
along  the  entire  front  of  the  lot,  introducing  gas,  painting 
the  interior  walls,  and  other  repairs,  at  a  cost  of  thirty- four 
hundred  dollars,  mostly  defrayed  by  private  subscription. 
While  the  work  was  in  progress,  the  congregation  worship- 
ped with  the  Third  Church,  then  without  a  pastor. 

On  the  sixth  November,  1858,  the  Fourth  Church  was 
organized,  with  a  few  members  from  the  First,  and  sixty 
from  the  Third  Church.  On  the  twenty-fifth  February,. 
1859,  the  Rev.  Edward  D.  Yeomans,  son  of  Dr.  John  W. 
Yeomans,  was  installed  their  pastor. 

In  1845  Mr.  Hall,  finding  many  German  families  of  the 
Lutheran  faith  whoi  attended  no'  church,  many  O'f  them 
unable  to  understand  English,  wrote  to  Rev.  Dr.  Demme, 
of  Philadelphia,  suggesting  a  visit  from  him  tO'  explore, 
or  the  sending  of  a  missionary.  In  1848  services  were  held 
in  the  First  Giurch  lecture-room,  by  German  missionaries, 
and  the  work  thus  begun  resulted  in  the  organization  of 
the  German  Lutheran  church. 

The  following  ruling  elders  have  been  elected  and  or- 
dained, in  the  First  Church,  during  the  present  pastorate : 

Samuel  Roberts,    "1  .^  ^      ^   ^ 

T       .1-       T-  1  Uanuary  16,  1846. 

Jonathan  Fisk,       J"^  j       '      -r 

George  S.  Green,  ^  6     8  8 

Augustus  G.  Richey,  J  '       5  • 


NOTES. 

I. 

Nicholas  Jacques  Emanuel  de  Belleville  was  born  at  Metz,  France, 
in  1753;  studied  medicine  under  his  father;  passed  seven  years  in 
the  schools  and  hospitals  of  Paris,^"  and  came  to  Trenton  under  the 
circumstances  related  in  the  following  note  furnished  to  me  by  Phile- 
mon Dickinson,  Esq.,  as  heard  from  the  Doctor's  lips: 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  261 

"He  happened  to  be,  in  the  spring  of  1777,  on  a  visit  to  a  gentleman, 
an  acquaintance  of  his  father,  who  lived  in  the  south  of  France,  whither 
"he  usually  repaired  in  the  winter  season,  on  account  of  the  delicate 
state  of  his  health.  He  there  met  and  was  introduced  to  Count 
Pulaski,  who  had  just  come  from  Italy,  where  he  had  been  obliged  to 
take  refuge  on  account  of  the  active  part  he  bore  in  the  well-known 
attempt  to  restore  the  liberties  of  Poland. 

"The  Count  was  then  on  the  eve  of  his  departure  for  this  country, 
and  having  taken  a  liking  for  the  Doctor,  invited  him  to  accompany  him. 
For  some  time  he  hesitated,  by  reason  of  his  want  of  money,  but  the 
gentleman  at  whose  house  he  was,  when  informed  of  this  fact,  told 
him  if  a  hundred  guineas  would  be  sufficient  for  his  purpose  he  would 
supply  him,  and  that  his  father  could  reimburse  him.  He  further  sup- 
plied him  with  every  thing  necessary  for  the  voyage,  and  on  the  last 
day  of  May,  1777,  he  left  Paris,  and  embarked  at  Nantes  on  the  ninth 
of  June,  for  the  United  States. 

"The  vessel  in  which  he  sailed  was  a  sloop-of-war,  mounting  fourteen 
guns,  with  a  crew  of  one  hundred  and  five  men.  She  had  on  board 
about  sixteen  hundred  stand  of  arms  for  the  American  troops.  On  the 
twenty-second  July  they  arrived  in  Massachusetts,  and  the  first  town 
he  entered  was  Salem,  where  he  staid  some  days  and  afterwards  went 
to  Boston. 

"He  attended  the  Count,  in  the  capacity  of  surgeon,  in  the  different 
parts  of  the  country  to  which  he  went  for  the  purpose  of  recruiting  a 
legion,  which  the  Count  was  authorized  to  raise  by  the  Provincial  Con- 
gress. 

"Pulaski  remained  some  time  at  Trenton  for  that  purpose,  where 
Belleville  became  acquainted  with  Dr.  Bryant,  a  physician  of  eminence, 
who  took  a  fancy  to  him,  treated  him  kindly,  and  endeavored  to  per- 
suade him  to  give  up  the  army  and  settle  in  Trenton ;  offering  to  do  all 
in  his  power  to  introduce  him  into  practice.  Dr.  Belleville,  however, 
attended  Pulaski  to  the  South,  and  while  stationed  there  he  received 
a  pressing  letter  from  his  friend,  Dr.  Bryant,  repeating  his  offer,  and 
urging  his  leaving  the  army;  representing  the  improbability  of  his 
succeeding  there  so  well  as  by  settling  down  to  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession. This  letter  he  showed  to  Pulaski,  who  told  him  it  was  not  his 
wish  to  stand  in  the  way  of  his  advancement,  and  if  he  thought  he 
could  do  better,  to  accept  the  offer  of  Dr.  Bryant.  He  did  so,  and  in 
the  fall  of  1778  took  up  his  residence  in  Trenton,  where  he  remained 
until  his  death." 

Dr.  Belleville  was  eminent  in  his  profession,  and  highly  esteemed  for 
his  social  qualities.  He  was  sometimes  called  to  attend  the  exiled  King 
of  Spain  at  Bordentown,  and  was  his  almoner  on  at  least  one  occasion, 
(February  5,  1831,)  when  the  Female  Benevolent  Society  of  Trenton 
acknowledged  fifty  dollars  "from  the  Count  de  SurvilHers,  by  Dr.  Belle- 
ville."    Mrs.   Belleville  was  a  communicant :    the  Doctor  was  a  pew- 


262  HISTORY   OF   THE 

holder  and  occasional  attendant,  but  was  too  fond  of  his  elegant  edition 
of  Voltaire  to  relish  the  Gospel.  He  was  buried  in  our  church-yard, 
and  one  of  his  pupils.  Dr.  F.  A.  Ewing,  in  addition  to  a  discriminating 
obituary  in  the  State  Gazette  of  Dec.  24,  1831,  furnished  the  inscription 
for  his  tomb : 

"This  stone  covers  the  remains  of  Dr.  Nicholas  Belleville.  Born 
and  educated  in  France ;  for  fifty-four  years  an  inhabitant  of  this  city. 
A  patriot  warmly  attached  to  the  principles  of  liberty ;  a  physician  emi- 
nently learned  and  successful ;  a  man  of  scrupulous  and  unblemished 
integrity.  On  the  seventeenth  day  of  December,  A.D.  1831,  at  the  age 
of  seventy-nine  years,  he  closed  a  life  of  honor  and  usefulness ;  by  all 
respected,  esteemed,  lamented." 

II. 

For  a  more  extended  notice  of  Chief  Justice  Charles  Ewing,  than 
I  can  find  room  for  now,  I  must  refer  to  the  eulogy,  pronounced  in  the 
church  at  the  united  request  of  the  Council  of  Trenton  and  the  bench 
and  bar  of  the  State,  by  his  intimate  friend,  Governor  Southard,  and 
to  the  memoir  furnished  by  the  same  hand  to  Longacre's  "National 
Portrait  Gallery.""  He  was  born  July  8,  1780;  prepared  for  college  at 
the  Trenton  Academy,  when  it  was  under  Mr.  Armstrong's  direction ; 
took  the  first  honor  at  Princeton  College  at  his  graduation  in  1798;  read 
law  under  Mr.  Leake,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1802.  The 
next  year  he  was  married  to  a  daughter  of  the  Rev.  James  F.  Arm- 
strong. He  was  appointed  Chief  Justice  in  October,  1824,  and  reap- 
pointed in  1831.  He  died  of  cholera,  August  5,  1832.  Mr.  Ewing  was 
a  punctual  and  leading  member  of  the  board  of  Trustees,  and  of  the 
congregation,  from  his  election,  April,  1814,  till  his  sudden  death.  Mr. 
Southard  declared  in  his  public  discourse  that  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
holding  up  the  entire  character  of  the  Chief  Justice  as  a  model  for 
aspirants  after  professional  honors,  and  said  that  "his  exposition  of 
the  system  of  jury-trial,  before  the  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society 
of  New  Jersey,  [January  28,  1826,]  is  the  most  finished  and  beautiful 
exhibition  of  its  merits  which  is  to  be  found,  in  the  same  compass,  in 
our  language." 

The  epitaph  on  his  monument,  written  by  President  Carnahan,  of 
Princeton,  is  as  follows : 

"Beneath  this  marble  rest  the  mortal  remains  of  Charles  Ewing, 
LL.D.,  Chief  Justice  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey. 

"In  intellect,  vigorous  and  discriminating.  In  industry,  assiduous 
and  persevering.  In  integrity,  pure  and  incorruptible.  In  manners, 
aflfable,  dignified,  and  polished.  In  morals,  spotless.  A  profound  jurist 
and  upright  magistrate.  An  accomplished  scholar,  and  patron  of  litera- 
ture and  science.     The  advocate  and  supporter  of  benevolent  institu- 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  263 

tions.  He  won,  in  an  eminent  degree,  the  respect,  the  love,  and  confi- 
dence of  his  fellow-citizens.  Happy  in  his  domestice  relation,  home 
was  the  theatre  of  his  most  endearing  virtues,  and  the  sphere  in  which 
he  loved  to  move.  He  reverenced  the  doctrines  and  practiced  the  pre- 
cepts of  the  Christian  religion.  In  the  vigor  of  his  mental  and  bodily 
powers,  surrounded  by  blessings,  cheered  by  the  approbation  of  his 
fellow-men,  with  an  extended  prospect  of  service  and  usefulness  before 
him,  he  was  attacked  with  a  violent  disease,  which  suddenly  terminated 
his  life  on  the  fifth  day  of  August,  A.D.  1832,  in  the  53d  year  of  his 
age." 

III. 

The  Rev.  Wm.  BoswELi.  had  been  for  sixteen  years  pastor  of  the 
Baptist  congregation  of  Trenton  and  Lamberton,  when  (1823)  he 
issued  an  address  to  its  members,  on  account  of  his  adoption  of  some 
new  tenets,  which  leaned  to  Swedenborgianism.  His  address  was 
answered  by  a  longer  letter  from  the  Rev.  John  Burtt  (first  editor  of 
"The  Presbyterian"  in  Philadelphia),  who  was  then  preaching  in 
Trenton.  Mr.  Boswell  died  June  10,  1833,  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven. 
His  grave  is  in  the  rear  of  the  building  where  he  last  preached — now 
the  Second  Presbyterian  Church.  Near  to  it  is  that  of  another  prom- 
inent Baptist  minister,  the  Rev.  BurgEss  Allison,  D.D.,  who  died 
on  a  visit  to  Trenton,  February  20,  1827." 

The  First  Baptist  Church  of  Lamberton  was  opened  November  26, 
1803 ;   when  the  sermon  was  preached  by  Dr.  Staughton. 

Mr.  Boswell's  was  called  '"The  Reformed  General  Baptist  Meeting- 
House."  It  was  built  (of  brick)  in  eleven  weeks,  and  was  opened 
October  19,  1823.    The  dimensions  were  fifty-four  feet  by  forty. 


IV. 

Thomas  Wilson^  an  intelligent  colored  man,  was  received  to  our 
communion  on  certificate  from  New  York,  November,  1839.  He  was 
a  shoemaker,  but  was  bent  upon  becoming  qualified  as  a  missionary 
in  Liberia.  For  this  purpose  he  removed  to  Easton,  and  studied 
under  the  direction  of  his  late  pastor,  the  President  of  the  College. 
He  sailed  for  Africa,  as  a  missionary  of  our  Board,  in  April,  1843. 
His  wife  and  infant  died  soon  after  their  arrival,  and  a  second  child 
not  long  afterwards.  Wilson's  station  was  Sinoe,  where  he  opened 
a  day-school  and  Sunday-school,  and  preached  every  week.  In  1845  he 
opened  a  small  building  as  a  church,  and  undertook  to  teach  a  school 
of  native  children  in  a  neighboring  town,  and  an  evening  school  of 
adult  colonists.     He  persevered  manfully  through  great  hardships  till 


264       HISTORY   OF   FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH. 

September  8,  1846,  when  he  died  of  an  illness  of  a  few  days.  In  the 
artless  language  of  one  of  his  children  who  sent  me  the  intelligence: 
"I  hope  he  is  resting,  for  when  he  did  labor  he  labored  hard,  and 
suffered  much  from  want  of  food  and  clothing."  The  Annual  Report 
of  the  Board  in  the  next  year,  says :  "His  death  is  a  great  loss  to 
the  Church  and  to  Africa.  His  experience  and  knowledge,  his  indus- 
try and  perseverance,  fitted  him  for  usefulness  in  this  important 
sphere  of  labor." 

Another  colored  member  of  our  church,  Elymas  P.  Rogers,  was 
ordained  by  our  Presbytery,  March  6,  1845,  and  became  pastor  of  a 
large  congregation  in  Newark.  He  afterward  went  to  Liberia,  to 
investigate  the  colony,  and  died  of  the  acclimating  fever  in  1861. 


By  the  will  of  Miss  Jane  Lowry,  who  died  November  1851,  the 
sum  of  two  hundred  dollars  and  her  pew  were  bequeathed  for  the 
benefit  of  the  poor  of  the  church.  By  the  will  of  Mr.  James  Brearley, 
who  also  died  November,  1851,  the  sum  of  five  hundred  dollars  was 
left  to  the  Trustees,  without  specific  directions. 


vr. 

A  newspaper  of  August  2,  1868,  contains  the  following  notice, 
headed  "Eighty  Years  a  Communicant": 

"Mrs.  Janet  Davis,  who  died  at  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  on  the  2d 
inst.,  was  two  months  over  ninety-six  years  of  age.  She  went  to 
her  first  communion  in  Paisley,  Scotland,  when  she  was  sixteen,  was 
received  by  the  First  Church  of  Trenton  in  1819,  and  continued  there 
till  her  death ;  consequently  she  was  eighty  years  a  communicant. 
Can  your  correspondents  furnish  a  parallel  instance  of  ecclesiastical 
longevity?  It  is  pleasing  to  be  able  to  add  that  Mrs.  Davis  retained 
in  her  memory  the  Scriptures  and  hymns  with  which  her  long  Chris- 
tian life  had  made  her  familiar,  and  that  her  faith,  like  her  faculties, 
though  not  childish,  was  eminently  childlike." 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

1859— 1884. 

(Collated  chiefly  from  Dr.   Hall's   supplementary  notes.) 

In  1870  it  was  thought  desirable  to  renovate  the  in- 
terior of  the  church  by  an  entire  change  in  the  style  of  the 
pews,  frescoing  the  walls,  attaching  a  small  room  to  the 
pulpit,  and  other  improvements.  From  September  18  to 
December  1 1  the  congregation  worshipped  in  the  morning  in 
a  large  public  hall,  and  in  the  evening  in  the  church  lecture- 
room.  On  the  1 8th  of  December  the  use  of  the  church 
was  restored.  The  improvements  left  an  outstanding  debt 
of  nearly  three  thousand  dollars.  Knowing  how  such  debts 
become  troublesome  by  delay  in  providing  for  them,  the 
pastor,  without  revealing  his  purpose  to  anyone,  adopted  a 
plan  of  prevention  which  proved  entirely  successful.  On 
the  Sabbath  of  January  ist,  1871,  his  sermon  was  on  "Re- 
deeming the  Time,"  in  the  closing  pages  of  which  he  slightly 
alluded  to  the  suitable  opportunity  of  the  new  year  to  can- 
cel the  cost  of  the  renewal  of  the  house.  When  he  had  fin- 
ished he  requested  the  gentlemen  of  the  congregation  to 
remain  after  the  service,  without  stating  the  purpose.  When 
they  had  been  arrested,  the  proposal  was  made  that  the  con- 
gregation should  practically  obey  the  doctrine  of  the  sermon 
by  redeeming  the  debt  of  the  past  year,  and  in  a  few  minutes 
it  was  pleasantly,  somewhat  amusingly,  accomplished,  to  the 
surprise  of  all. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  first  organ,  placed  in  the 
church  of   1840,  was  replaced  by  the  large  one,  built  by 

(265) 


266  HISTORY   OF   THE 

Erben,  of  New  York,  which  has  assisted  our  worship  so 
appropriately  during  the  past  years. 

On  the  Sabbath  after  the  paying-  of  the  debt,  January  8th, 
a  room  annexed  to  the  chapel,  for  the  separate  use  of  the 
infant-school,  was  used  for  the  first  time. 

A  strong  temptation  to  begin  a  permanent  endowment 
fund,  for  the  financial  benefit  of  the  corporation,  was  felt  in 
1875-6,  when  an  ofifer  of  thirty  thousand  dollars  for  sixty 
feet  of  ground  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  church-plot  was 
received.  The  Trustees  submitted  the  proposal  to  a  meet- 
ing of  the  congregation,  October  5,  1875,  but  as  the  plot, 
although  seldom  used  for  burial  at  that  time,  contained  the 
graves  of  several  generations,  the  sale  was  refused. 

The  volume  we  are  supplementing  closed  its  history  at 
the  date  of  its  publication,  March,  1859.  Our  churches  had 
increased  from  the  single  one  of  the  first  chapters  to  the 
Fourth,  which  was  opened  in  that  year.  According  to  the 
location  of  these  churches,  two  were  near  the  center  of  the 
population,  the  others  nearer  the  southern  and  eastern 
boundaries  of  the  city,  and  the  mission  chapel  mentioned  in 
the  preceding  chapter  was  growing-  into  the  organized  Fifth 
congregation  of  1874.  In  October,  1864,  Rev.  Ansley  D. 
White,  who  had  been  pastor  of  the  Second  Church  for  a 
time,  but  had,  serving  elsewhere  for  some  years,  returned 
to  Trenton  and  was  invited  to  supply  regularly  the  congre- 
gation assembling  in  the  chapel.  So  prosperous  was  the 
work  done  there  that  the  Presbytery,  on  February  23,  1874, 
organized  the  Fifth  Church  with  twenty-eight  members,^ 
three  of  whom  were  from  the  First  Church.  Mr.  John  S. 
Chambers,  who  had  been  an  elder  of  the  First  Church,  and 
Mr.  Albert  S.  Drake,  were  elected  and  installed  elders,  and 
on  October  26  Rev.  Ansley  D.  White  was  installed  pastor. 

The  location  of  these  five  churches  left  the  western  sec- 
tion of  the  city  to  be  provided  for.  Members  of  the  First 
Church  living  in  that  part  of  the  city  interested  themselves 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  267 

in  the  organizing-  and  conducting  of  a  Sunday-school, 
which  met  in  unoccupied  houses  on  West  State  street,  until 
the  desirability  of  a  new  church  organization  became  ap- 
parent. On  August  II,  1874,  the  cornerstone  of  a  church 
building,  at  the  corner  of  Prospect  and  Spring  streets,  was 
laid,  and  on  April  25,  1875,  the  Presbytery  organized  the 
Prospect  Street  Presbyterian  Church,  with  seventeen  mem- 
bers from  the  First  Church,  six  from  the  Third  and  twelve 
from  other  churches.  Augustus  G.  Richey,  an  elder  of  the 
First  Church ;  John  T.  Nixon,  an  elder  of  the  First  Church 
of  Bridgeton,  N.  J. ;  Samuel  C.  Brown,  an  elder  of  the 
South  Reformed  Church  of  New  York,  and  Frederick  J. 
Slade,  an  elder  of  the  Third  Church  of  Trenton,  were 
elected  and  installed  elders.  On  October  14,  1875,  Walter 
A.  Brooks,  a  licentiate  of  the  Presbytery  of  Bloomington, 
was  ordained  and  installed  pastor. 

Whilst  the  churches  were  thus  increasing  with  the  popu- 
lation of  the  city  proper,  the  suburb  of  Chambersburg  had 
rapidly  grown  from  a  farming  district  to  an  incorporated 
borough  of  many  thousand  inhabitants.  The  name  given 
in  its  charter  was  that  of  Robert  Chambers,  the  original 
owner  of  much  of  the  land,  and  a  member  of  one  of  the 
oldest  families  in  the  First  Church.  A  number  of  Pres- 
byterians, finding  that  the  city  churches  required  a  long 
walk  to  reach  them,  determined  to  make  an  experiment  for 
their  greater  convenience.  Beginning  with  a  Sunday- 
school  and  occasional  preaching  in  a  convenient  school- 
building,  the  encouragement  soon  appeared  to  warrant  the 
organization  of  a  church  and  the  erection  of  a  substantial 
building.  The  Bethany  Presbyterian  Church  was  organ- 
ized by  the  Presbytery,  on  November  15,  1886,  with  three 
members  from  the  First  Church,  and  sixty-three  from  other 
churches.  Professor  George  H.  Voorhis  and  Mr.  Thomas 
S.  Morris  w^ere  elected  and  installed  elders.  On  November 
29th   the    Presbytery   transferred   Rev.    Daniel   R.    Foster 


268  HISTORY   OF   THE 

from  the  pastorate  of  the  Pennington  Church  to  that  of  the 
Bethany  Church.  The  new  building,  on  the  corner  of 
Hamilton  and  Chestnut  avenues,  was  occupied  for  services 
on  the  6th  of  March,  1888.  This  may  properly  be  called 
the  seventh  church  of  Trenton. 

We  might  with  some  propriety  make  an  eighth,  not  in 
numerical  order,  but  in  the  total,  from  the  church  at  Morris- 
ville,  Pennsylvania,  which  is  separated  from  Trenton  only 
by  the  Delaware,  and  which  was  established  and  main- 
tained, in  great  part,  by  the  Trenton  churches,  until  it  was 
transferred  to  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  North,  where 
it  naturally  belonged,  but  after  which  change  it  continued 
to  receive  neighborly  assistance  from  Trenton.  Mr.  Samuel 
Roberts,  an  elder  of  the  First  Church,  superintended  the 
Morrisville  Sunday-school,  with  scarcely  a  day's  failure, 
for  twenty  years. 

In  1880  the  congregation  of  the  First  Church  became 
interested  in  measures  taken  to  establish  a  church  and  school 
for  the  emancipated  colored  population  of  Carthage,  Moore 
county,  N'orth  Carolina.  The  minister  and  teacher  upon 
whose  hands  had  devolved  this  undertaking  had  been  a  resi- 
dent of  Trenton,  where  he  had  won  the  confidence  of  the 
most  respectable  families  by  his  meritorious  character  and 
faithful  service.  Henry  D.  Wood  entered  Lincoln  Uni- 
versity in  1872,  and  was  graduated  from  the  theological 
department  of  that  institution  in  April,  1878.  He  was 
placed  in  Carthage  by  the  Missionary  Board  for  Freedmen. 
He  found  a  church  of  thirty-five  members  and  a  Sabbath- 
school  of  twenty-five,  numbers  which  rose  to  168  and  175, 
respectively,  besides  two  schools  in  country  settlements. 
Mr.  Wood  was  enabled  by  his  friends  to  build,  at  the  cost 
of  a  thousand  dollars,  a  neat  and  commodious  church, 
which  was  opened  for  religious  services  October  19,  1884, 
under  the  name  of  "John  Hall  Chapel,"  and  in  connection 
with  the  Yadkin  Presbytery  of  our  General  Assembly.    The 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  269 

Minutes  of  1887  report  forty  communicants  received  in  that 
year  at  Carthage. 

During  some  months  of  the  year  1883-4,  Mr.  Richard 
A.  Greene,  a  licentiate  of  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia, 
was  employed  as  assistant  to  the  pastor,  and  fulfilled  a  use- 
ful service  in  that  relation. 

Early  in  1884  the  pastor  notified  the  congregation  of  his 
purpose  to  apply  to  the  Presbytery  for  the  dissolution  of  his 
pastoral  relation  to  the  First  Church,  after  a  pastorate  of 
forty-three  years.  On  April  8,  1884,  the  Presbytery  com- 
plied with  this  request,  and  Dr.  Hall  became  pastor  emeritus. 

NOTE. 

I  now  subjoin  the  statistics  of  the  entire  period  from  the  installa- 
tion in  1841  to  the  resignation  of  1884: 

Communicants  received  on  examination,   465 

Communicants  received  on  certificate,  435 

Communicants  dismissed  on  certificate,   485 

Infants   baptized,    4^3 

Adults  baptized,    IQO 

Funerals    (estimated) ,    1,000 

Marriages,     408 

During  the  same  period  the  pastor  preached  in  the  First  Church,  3,452 

Wednesday  lectures,    1,631 

He  preached  in  other  churches,   7^3 

These  figures  do  not  include  the  many  years'  services  every  Friday 
evening,  which  were  more  or  less  expository  as  well  as  devotional,  or 
the  Bible  classes  of  several  winters. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

John  Dixon,  D.D.,  Lewis  S^Eymour  Mudge,  D.D. 

1884 — 1 901. 

On  February  21,  1884,  the  Rev.  Dr.  John  Hall  gave 
notice  to  the  Session  that  on  account  of  impaired  health 
and  the  increasing  infirmities  of  age  he  felt  it  to  be  his 
duty  to  shortly  resign  the  pastorate.  On  May  4,  following, 
Dr.  Hall  formally  tendered  his  resignation,  which,  after 
much  hesitancy,  was  reluctantly  accepted.  The  Presby- 
tery of  New  Brunswick  dissolved  the  pastoral  relation  and 
constituted  Dr.  Hall  pastor-emeritus  as  requested  by  the 
congregation.  Thus  was  brought  to  an  end  the  active 
ministry  of  Dr.  Hall,  which  he  had  fulfilled  so  long,  so  lov- 
ingly and  with  marked  distinction  and  success. 

While  the  dissolution  of  the  pastoral  relation  released  the 
congregation  from  its  legal  financial  obligation  to  Dr.  Hall, 
yet  voluntary  pledges  were  made  towards  a  salary  for  him 
as  pastor-emeritus,  which  amounted  to  over  $2,100  per 
annum.  The  passing  years  wrought  many  changes  by 
death  and  removal  in  the  list  of  siibscribers,  yet  such  were 
the  love  and  devotion  of  the  people  to  him  that  the  salary 
was  fully  kept  up  until  the  time  of  his  death,  which  occurred 
May  10,  1894. 

On  June  11,  1884,  the  committee  which  had  been  ap- 
pointed to  seek  out  and  recommend  to  the  congregation  a 
successor  to  Dr.  Hall  made  report  naming  the  Rev.  John 
Dixon,  of  Yonkers,  N.  Y.,  who  was  chosen  pastor.  Mr. 
Dixon  signified  his  acceptance  of  the  call  and  began  work 
on  September  11,  1884.  Arrangements  were  made  by  the 
Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick  for  the  installation  services 

(271) 


272  HISTORY   OF   THE 

to  be  held  on  October  15.  On  that  occasion  the  Rev.  Dr. 
S.  M.  Studdiford  presided;  the  sermion  was  preached  by 
the  Rev.  J.  O.  Murray,  D.D. ;  the  charge  to  the  pastor 
by  the  Rev.  WilHam  Henry  Green,  D.D.,  and  the  charge 
to  the  people  by  the  Rev.  John  Hall,  D.D. 

After  some  two  years  spent  by  Mr.  Dixon  in  the  neces- 
sary study  of  the  congregation  and  of  the  spiritual  needs 
of  the  city,  it  was  thought  best  to  endeavor  tO'  interest  our 
people  in  some  form  of  Christian  work  outside  of  the 
church.  According'ly  the  attention  of  the  congregation 
was  directed  to-  the  manifest  need  of  a  Sunday-school  in 
East  Trenton,  known  as  Millham.  The  Session,  at  a  meet- 
ing held  November  18,  1886,  took  action  as  follows: 

"That  as  the  attention  of  the  Session  has  been  seriously  turned  to  the 
necessity  of  Sunday-school  work  in  Millham  in  view  of  the  spiritual 
destitution  of  that  population,  and  after  careful  consideration  of  the 
subject,  the  Session  recommend  that  such  work  be  taken  up  by  this 
church,  and  that  the  matter  be  referred  to  a  meeting  of  the  congrega- 
tion to  be  held  on  Wednesday  evening  next,  following  Thanksgiving 
next,  for  consideration,  and  that  the  pastor  be  requested,  instead  of  the 
ordinary  service,  to  present  at  such  meeting  the  needs  of  such  work, 
such  statistics  and  other  data  upon  the  subject  as  he  may  think  proper. 

"Resolved  further,  That  a  committee  consisting  of  Elders  Elmer  and 
Hamill  be  requested  to  consider,  and  at  such  meeting  report,  what 
would  be  the  best  location  for  such  Sunday-school  building,  and  what 
would  be  the  probable  cost  of  organization  and  accommodation." 

The  interest  of  Judge  Caleb  S.  Green  in  the  project  is 
shown  by  the  offer  he  made  as  set  forth  in  the  following 
letter : 

"Trenton,  December  20,  1886. 
"To  the  Pastor  and  Session  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church. 

"My  Dear  Friends — In  order  to  avoid  any  misunderstanding  in  re- 
lation to  my  proposal  to  aid  in  establishing  the  'Millham  Mission,'  I 
desire  to  state  in  writing  my  several  offers  more  in  detail  for  the 
guidance  of  the  Session  in  arriving  at  a  safe  conclusion. 

"i.  Should  the  Session  be  in  favor  of  what  I  termed  an  aggressive 
policy  in  carrying  on  the  mission  work,  that  is,  in  addition  to  the 
Sabbath-school,   to   make   provision   for   maintaining   regular   religious 


FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  273 

services  for  the  adult  population  on  the  Sabbath,  and  if  deemed  ad- 
visable occasionally  during  the  week,  I  am  willing  and  offer  to  purchase 
a  suitable  lot  to  be  selected  by  a  committee  of  the  Session  and  myself, 
and  to  lease  the  same  for  the  purposes  of  the  mission  at  a  nominal  rent 
for  a  term  of  years  (not  exceeding  ten),  with  the  privilege  on  part 
of  the  lessees  of  purchasing  the  lot  at  any  time  during  the  term  at  the 
price  paid  by  me  therefor.  The  lessees  to  erect  on  the  premises  within 
six  months  from  the  date  of  the  lease  a  suitable  building  for  the 
Sunday-school  work  and  religious  services,  to  cost,  with  furnishing, 
not  less  than  $2,000.  The  lessees  to  pay  all  taxes  and  assessments  on 
the  property  during  the  term.  Should  the  mission  fail  and  the  Session 
neglect  to  maintain  the  school  and  religious  services  for  the  period  of 
six  months,  the  lease  to  terminate  and  be  at  an  end. 

"2.  But  should  the  Session  deem  it  advisable  first  to  try  the  experi- 
ment of  establishing  the  school  alone,  before  expending  so  large  a 
sum  of  money  and  pledging  themselves  to  the  continuance  of  the 
work,  I  will,  if  a  suitable  house  for  the  purpose  can  be  obtained, 
pay  a  reasonable  rent  therefor  for  one  or  two  years  and  aid  in  defray- 
ing the  expense  of  any  alterations  necessary  to  be  made  for  the 
accommodation  of  the  school. 

"Although  the  foregoing  is  to  be  considered  as  the  substance  of  my 
proposal,  I  will  cheerfully  consider  any  modifications  the  Session  may 
deem  desirable. 

"Caleb  S.  Green." 

The  proposals  contained  in  Judge  Green's  letter  were 
then  carefully  considered  and  discussed  by  the  Session,  and 
on  motion  it  was  determined  that  the  interests  of  the 
church  will  be  most  surely  promoted  by  declining  the  first 
and  accepting  the  second  proposal,  and  the  Clerk  was 
directed  to  write  to'  Judge  Green,  expressing  to  him  the 
thanks  of  the  Session  for  the  very  liberal  proposals  he  has 
made  for  promoting  the  work  in  Millham,  and  informing 
him  that  the  second  proposal  contained  in  his  communica- 
tion of  the  20th  inst.  is  accepted. 

The  Sunday-school  was  begun  February  13,  1887,  and 
its  sessions  were  held  in  the  public  school  building  by  the 
permission  of  the  authorities.  Mr.  Moore  Dupuy  was 
elected  Superintendent  and  Mr.  Barton  B.  Hutchinson, 
Assistant  Superintendent.    The  school  grew  rapidly,  and  on 

18   PRES 


274  HISTORY   OF   THE 

October  14,  1887,  the  Session  considered  plans  for  the  pur- 
chasing of  property  and  the  erection  of  a  building.  Dr. 
William  Elmer  and  Mr.  Hugh  H.  Hamill  were  appointed 
a  committee  to  confer  with  Judge  Caleb  S.  Green.  As  a 
result  of  the  conference  Judge  Green  purchased  the  lot 
corner  O'f  North  Clinton  and  Olden  avenues  at  a  cost  of 
$5,000.  The  erection  of  the  building  and  its  furnishing 
cost  $6,313.50,  making  the  total  cost  oi  ground  and  build- 
ing $11,313.50.  The  building  was  dedicated  on  December 
26,  1887.  Preaching  in  the  evening  was  soon  begun  with 
such  encouraging  results  that  on  the  first  of  May,  1889, 
Mr.  D.  R.  Warne,  a  student  at  the  Theological  Seminary, 
of  Princeton,  was  engaged  for  a  period  of  five  months  to 
spend  his  entire  time  on  the  field.  Mr.  Warne's  services 
were  warmly  appreciated  and  the  chapel  continued  to  make 
steady  and  rapid  progress. 

On  May  23,  1890,  the  Rev.  Edward  Scofield,  of  Newark, 
N.  J.,  was  called  by  the  Session  to  give  his  whole  time  to 
the  field,  preach  morning  and  night  on  the  Sabbath  and 
maintain  a  prayer  meeting  during  the  week.  Mr.  Scofield 
remained  one  year  and  then  the  Session  invited  the  Rev. 
Frank  B.  Everitt,  of  Kansas  City,  Mo.,  to^  take  charge  of 
the  chapel.  Mr.  Everitt  took  vigorous  hold  of  the  work 
and  under  his  energetic  leadership  every  department  of 
church  effort  was  pushed  with  vigor.  He  began  his  min- 
istry January  15,  1892,  and  at  every  comimunion  there  were 
regular,  and  sometimes  large,  additions  made  to^  the  mem- 
bership. While  our  Session  gave  close  as  well  as  constant 
supervision  to  the  work  carried  on  at  the  Chapel,  yet  a 
separate  roll  of  the  members  was  kept  and  a  separate  report 
made  to  Presbytery.  When  under  Mr.  Everitt's  ministry 
it  had  been  so  prospered  as  to  be  able  to  care  fully  for  all 
its  ordinary  financial  responsibilities  it  was  deemed  advis- 
able to  apply  to  Presbytery  for  organization.  This  was 
done  and  the  Presbytery  gave  favorable  consideration  to 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  275 

the  petition  Oif  the  people  and  the  request  of  the  First 
Church  Session  and  organized  the  East  Trenton  Presby- 
terian Church  on  April  21,  1899.  While  the  formal 
relation  hitherto  existing-  between  the  First  Church  and 
the  Millham,  Chapel  was  thus  brought  to  a  close,  yet  our 
church  maintains  to  this  hour  a  deep  and  smypathetic  in- 
terest in  the  activities  and  welfare  oi  the  church  in  East 
Trenton.  From  the  very  beginning  of  this  enterprise  our 
people  supported  it  with  enthusiasm,  not  only  giving  all 
needed  financial  aid,  but  workers  in  church,  Sabbath-school, 
Industrial  school  and  Club  were  never  lacking.  The  story 
of  its  beginning  and  progress  constitutes  the  brightest  page 
in  the  history  of  the  First  Church  during  the  pastorate 
of  Mr.  Dixon. 

The  Rev.  C.  A.  R.  Janvier,  pastor  of  the  Fifth  Presby- 
terian Church,  of  Trenton,  announced  his  purpose  to  return 
to  India  as  a  missionary  under  the  Foreign'  Board.  Mr. 
Janvier's  early  life  had  been  spent  in  India,  where  his  father 
had  been  a  missionary.  When  the  congregation  of  the 
First  Church  learned  O'f  Mr.  Janvier's  purpose  they  resolved 
to  provide  for  his  salary  in  addition  to  making  their  annual 
offering  for  the  general  work  of  the  Board.  On  July  15, 
1887,  the  Session  gave  the  pastor  permission  to  secure  from 
individuals  such  gifts  as  they  might  be  disposed  tO'  make 
for  this  purpose.  The  salary  as  determined  by  the  Foreign 
Board  was  fixed  at  $1,000  per  annum.  There  was  practi- 
cally no  difficulty  in  raising  this  sum  year  after  year.  Mr. 
Janvier  was  located  at  Fatehgarh,  N.  W.  P.,  India,  and  his 
reports,  from  time  to  time,  kept  the  congregation  informed 
as  to  his  work  and  maintained  the  interest  of  the  church 
in  him.  After  several  years  absence  Mr.  Janvier  returned 
to  this  cO'Untr}'-  for  a  brief  visit.  He  addressed  the  congre- 
gation several  times  on  the  need  and  character  of  his  work. 
He  returned  to  India,  where  he  continued  to  labor  for  a 
considerable  time  and  then  returned  to  this  country  to  look 


276  HISTORY   OF  THE 

after  the  education  of  his  only  son,  who  specially  required 
his  parents'  attention  because  of  seriously  impaired  eyesight. 
Mr.  Janvier  became  pastor  of  the  Holland  Memorial  Pres- 
byterian Church,  of  Philadelphia,  where  he  still  labors.  It 
is  interesting  to  note  that  young  Mr.  Janvier  graduated 
from  Princeton  University  with  honor  and  has  returned  to 
India. 

For  many  years  the  congregation  was  interested  in  the 
work  of  the  Rev.  Henry  D.  Wood,  of  Carthage,  N.  C.  Mr. 
Wood  and  his  wife  were  well  known  toi  many  of  the  older 
families  of  the  congregation,  and  when  they  went  to  begin 
work  amongst  their  own  people  (colored)  of  Carthage, 
they  carried  with  themi  the  substantial  good-wishes  of  our 
people.  In  December,  1888,  the  sum  of  $820  was  raised 
by  Mr.  Wood's  personal  canvass  of  our  people,  which  en- 
sured the  erection  of  a  church  building.  Out  of  gratitude 
for  the  interest  so^  long  shown  by  the  congregation  in  Mr. 
Wood  and  his  work,  Mr,  Wood  and  his  people  called  the 
church  the  "John  Hall  Chapel."  The  school  and  industrial 
work  carried  on  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wood  also  required  a 
building,  and  this  being  secured  it  was  named  "Dayton 
Academy,"  because  of  the  special  interest  taken  by  the  late 
Mrs.  Wm.  L.  D'ayton  in  this  work.  The  young  people  of 
our  church  have  kept  up  their  devotion  to  this  special  enter- 
prise and  for  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  have  sent 
Christmas  boxes  and  money  to  Mr.  Wood's  people. 

On  April  3,  1887,  Miss  E.  B.  Johnson  resolved  to  show 
a  practical  interest  in  the  religious  welfare  of  the  China- 
men in  this  city.  Permiission  was  given  her  to  start  a  school 
on  Sunday  evenings  in  the  lecture-room.  Miss  Johnson 
secured  the  co-operation  of  fourteen  others  and  each  had 
a  class  of  one  or  more  Chinamen.  Quite  a  number  of  these 
teachers  were  young  women  connected  with  the  Model  and 
Normal  Schools.  This  class  was  maintained  for  several 
years.     From  time  to  time  the  men   were  addressed  by 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  277 

ministers  and  others  who  could  speak  to  them  in  their  own 
language.  Amongst  these  was  the  Rev.  Benjamin  C. 
Henry,  D.D.,  who  was  for  many  years  a  missionary  in 
China  under  the  Foreign  Board.  What  were  the  permanent 
results  of  this  bit  of  foreign  missionary  work  at  home  may 
never  be  fully  known  in  this  life,  but  it  is  interesting  to 
remember  that  at  least  one  of  these  men,  Joe  Wong,  by 
name,  was  converted  and  united  with  the  church  on  con- 
fession of  faith.  His  life  and  spirit  were  in  every  way 
exemplary  and  he  gave  abundant  evidence  that  his  conver- 
sion was  both  intelligent  and  thorough. 

For  many  years  the  Women's  Foreign  Missionary  So- 
ciety of  the  church  provided  the  money  necessary  to  pay  the 
salary  of  Mrs.  Hepburn,  wife  of  Dr.  James  C.  Hepburn,  of 
Japan.  Mrs.  Hepburn's  letters  to  the  society  were  so 
interesting  that  she  had  gained  for  herself  the  deep  affection 
of  the  women  who  fully  appreciated  the  privilege  of  being 
brought  into  such  close  relationship  with  such  a  distin- 
guished missionary.  When,  then,  it  was  learned  that  Dr. 
and  Mrs.  Hepburn  proposed  returning  to  this  country,  it 
was  decided  not  only  to  invite  them  tO'  Trenton,  but  also 
to  give  them  a  public  reception  which  shouild  suitably  mark 
the  esteem  in  which  they  were  held.  The  reception 
occurred  on  May  31,  1889,  was  loyally  attended  and  resulted 
in  bringing  up  the  interest  of  the  entire  congregation  in 
Foreign  Missions  to  a  higher  level  than  ever  before  reached. 

On  April  20,  1891,  a  joint  meeting  of  the  elders  and 
trustees  was  held,  to  arrange  for  the  suitable  observance  of 
the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  Dr.  Hall's  ministry.  On  Sun- 
day, May  31,  Dr.  Hall  preached  his  fiftieth  anniversary 
sermon.  Characteristically  enough  the  sermon  contained 
very  little  about  himself  or  about  his  work.  It  was  an 
affectionate  and  earnest  setting  forth  of  the  gospel.  On 
the  following  evening  a  public  reception  was  given  him  in 
the  lecture-room  of  the  church  and  a  purse  of  $1,000  in 


278  HISTORY   OF   THE 

gold  was  presented  to  him.  The  whole  occasion  not  only 
called  forth  the  warmest  appreciation  of  Dr.  Hall  and  of 
the  love  and  devotion  of  his  people  to  him,  but  also  stirred 
most  profoundly  the  tender  sensibilities  of  the  congregation, 
many  of  whom  had  grown  to  manhood  and  womanhood 
under  his  ministry. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Session  held  January  25,  1893,  it 
was  resolved  to^  recommend  the  church  to  elect  additional 
elders  and  deacons,  and  accordingly  at  a  meeting  of  the 
church  held  on  February  26,  1893,  the  following  persons 
were  chosen  elders,  viz.,  John  S.  Chambers,  Edward  T. 
Green,  Lewis  C.  Wooley,  and  Henry  D.  Oliphant;  also, 
Tho'S.  S.  Chambers  and  Barton  B.  Hutchinson  were  chosen 
deacons.  Both  Mr.  John  S.  Chambers  and  Thomas  S. 
Chambers  desired  to  be  excused  from'  accepting  the  offices 
to  which  they  had  been  elected,  and  on  Sunday,  February 
26,  1893,  the  remaining  brethren  were  duly  ordained  and 
installed.  By  reason  of  subsequent  deaths  and  changes 
among  both  elders  and  deacons  another  election  was  held 
December  13,  1897,  when  John  H.  Scudder,  Moore  Dupuy 
and  Oscar  Woodworth  were  chosen  elders  and  Benjamin 
M.  Phillips,  Henry  W.  Green  and  G.  Abeel  Hall  were  chosen 
deacons,  and  on  the  following  Sunday  were  duly  ordained 
and  installed.  At  this  point  it  may  be  proper  to'  note  that 
at  the  time  when  Mr.  Dixon  began  his  pastorate  the  Board 
of  Trustees  was  constituted  as  follows,  viz. :  Hon.  Caleb 
S.  Green,  President ;  Barker  Gummere,  Chas.  E.  Green, 
Hon.  William  L.  Dayton,  Gen.  William  S.  Stryker,  Abner 
R.  Chambers,  and  Edward  Grant  Cook.  The  secretary  of 
the  Board  at  that  time  was  Mr.  Benjamin  F.  Chambers,  and 
the  treasurer  Mr.  Thos.  S.  Chambers.  To  fill  vacancies 
caused  by  death  the  following  gentlemen  were  elected 
trustees  between  1884  and  1898,  viz. :  Mr.  F.  O.  Briggs, 
Mr.  Elmer  E.  Green,  Mr.  John  S.  Chambers,  and  Mr. 
Charles  Whitehead.     The  presidents  of  the  Board  follow- 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  279 

ing  Judge  Caleb  S.  Green  were  Barker  Gummere,  William 
L.  Dayton,  Charles  E.  Green  and  Judge  Elmer  E.  Green. 
The  secretaries  succeeding  Mr.  Benjamin  F.  Chambers  were 
Mr.  Lewis  W.  Scott  and  Mr.  Nelson  L.  Petty. 

On  May  10,  1894,  Dr.  Hall  died  at  his  residence  224 
West  State  street,  in  the  eighty-ninth  year  of  his  age. 
The  funeral  services  were  held  in  the  church.  The  whole 
city  was  affected  by  the  sad  event  and  in  various  ways 
showed  its  deep  appreciation  of  the  long  life,  the  noble 
character  and  the  many  and  great  services  he  had  rendered 
to  the  church  and  the  community.  The  address  was  de- 
livered by  the  Rev.  John  Hall,  D.D.,  pastor  of  the  Fifth 
Avenue  Presbyterian  Church,  of  New  York.  The  body 
was  taken  to  Philadelphia  for  interment,  and  on  the  follow- 
ing Sunday  Mr.  Dixon  preached  a  memorial  sennon  from 
Hebrews  13:7:  "Remember  them  which  have  the  rule 
over  you,  who  have  spoken  unto  you  the  word  of  God : 
whose  faith  follow,  considering  the  end  of  their  conversa- 
tion." 

The  following  resolution,  prepared  by  the  committee 
appointed  for  the  purpose,  was  adopted  by  the  Session : 

"The  Session  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Trenton,  N.  J.,^ 
hereby  makes  formal  record  of  the  death  of  the  Rev.  John  Hall,  D.D.,, 
the  pastor-emeritus  of  this  congregation.  It  occurred  on  the  tenth 
day  of  May,  last  past. 

"Nothing  could  be  more  foreign  to  our  purpose  in  making  this  sad 
minute  than  to  spread  upon  this  record  mere  eulogium  of  him  who  was 
so  dear  to  us  as  our  Pastor,  Associate  and  Friend. 

"Silence  born  of  sorrow  is  more  suggestive  of  our  loss  than  would 
be  the  eloquence  of  studied  praise.  And  we  are  well  assured  that  we 
are  in  thorough  accord  with  his  own  oft-expressed  wish  when  we 
restrain,  as  best  we  may,  the  impulse  to  speak  the  words  of  tender 
commendation  and  loving  regard  which  our  saddened  hearts  do  con- 
tinually suggest. 

"Yet  we  cannot  refrain  from  confessing  our  sense  of  painful  be- 
reavement that  has  followed  the  sundering  of  the  tie  which  knit  us 
together,  nor  fail  to  record  our  personal  love  for  him ;  nor,  as  well, 
to  express  our  gratitude  to  our  Father  in  Heaven,  who  permitted  him 
to  labor  among  us  and  with  us  and  for  us  for  so  many  years. 


28o 


HISTORY   OF   THE 


"Dr.  Hairs  thorough  faithfulness  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties;  his 
high  appreciation  of  his  sacred  office ;  his  witnessing  for  Christ  boldly 
and  always  in  his  everyday  life,  made  him  a  power  not  only  in  his 
own  church  but,  as  well,  in  the  community  in  which  he  lived.  While 
the  unsullied  honesty  of  his  life,  the  purity  and  unselfishness  of  his 
purposes  and  the  love  and  tender  sympathy  which  impulsed  every  act, 
forever  enshrine  him  in  the  hearts  of  this  congregation. 

"He  has  left  us  to  go  to  his  eternal  home.  In  his  Father's  house 
of  many  mansions  prepared  for  him  by  his  Lord  and  Saviour,  he  is 
at  rest.  While  the  unbidden  tear  will  flow,  we  rejoice  that  he  has 
won  the  victory  and  has  gained  the  crown." 

The  work  of  the  church  was  carried  on  with  regularity 
and  steady  progress  was  made  in  every  department.  Noth- 
ing of  note  occurred  after  Dr.  Hall's  death  until  Mr.  Dixon 
notified  the  congregation  of  his  intention  to  resign  the 
pastorate,  which  he  did  on  September  19,  1898.  The  Pres- 
bytery of  New  Brunswick,  upon  request  of  the  pastor  and 
congregation,  dissolved  the  pastoral  relation  which  had 
existed  for  fourteen  years  and  the  Rev.  James  O.  Murray, 
D.D,,  was  appointed  to  preach  and  declare  the  pulpit  vacant. 


The  Rev.  Lewis  Seymour  Mudge  was  unanimously  called 
to  the  pastorate  on  May  24,  1899.  On  June  27,  1899,  ^^ 
was  received  into  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick,  the 
call  was  placed  in  his  hands  and  he  having  signified  his 
acceptance,  September  27,  1899.  was  appointed  as  the  time 
for  his  installation.  On  that  date  Mr.  Mudge  was  duly 
installed  as  Pastor,  the  following  taking  part  in  the  service : 
The  Rev.  Samuel  McLanahan  presided  and  asked  the  con- 
stitutional questions.  The  sermon  was  preached  by  the 
father  of  the  pastor,  the  Rev.  Lewis  W.  Mudge,  D.D.,  the 
charge  to  the  Plastor  was  delivered  by  the  brother-in-law 
of  the  pastor,  the  Rev.  James  D.  Paxton,  D.D.,  and  the 
charge  to  the  people  by  the  former  pastor,  the  Rev.  John 
Dixon,  D.D.  Thus  was  initiated  a  delightful,  though  a 
brief  pastorate.  Nominally,  the  relation  thus  established 
continued  for  twenty-six  months,  but  in  reality  Mr.  Mudge's 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  281 

term  of  service  ended  on  December  13,  1900,  when,  because 
of  ill  health,  he  was  compelled  to  ask  for  a  leave  of  absence 
which  was  finally  extended  to  October  i,  1901.  The  health 
of  the  pastor  not  having  been  sufficiently  restored  by  this 
time  to  justify  his  return  to  his  duties,  he  regretfully  pre- 
sented his  resignation  to  the  Session  on  October  18,  1901. 
Oti  November  4,  1901,  the  congregation  reluctantly 
acquiesced  in  the  pastor's  wish  that  the  pastoral  relation  be 
terminated  and  at  the  joint  request  of  pastor  and  people  the 
Presbytery  directed  that  the  pastorate  should  end  on 
November  24,  1901. 

Although  Mr.  Mudge  was  in  active  service  but  fourteen 
months,  marked  progress  was  made  in  several  directions. 
The  adjustments  in  membership  required  by  the  formation 
of  the  East  Trenton  Chapel  into  an  independent  organiza- 
tion were  completed,  the  roll  oi  members  thoroughly  re- 
vised, and  sixty-four  new  members,  sixteen  on  profession 
of  faith  and  forty-eight  by  letter,  were  added.  The  Sun- 
day-school, under  the  direction  of  Mr,  Edward  S.  Wood, 
who  was  appointed  Superintendent  by  the  Session  on  No- 
vember 22,  1899,  and  who  assumed  charge  of  the  school 
on  December  10,  1899,  grew  rapidly  in  numbers  and  in- 
terest, a  factor  in  its  success  being  the  large  Bible  class 
conducted  by  the  Pastor.  On  November  22,  1899,  the 
envelope  system^  was  adop'ted  for  use  in  connection  with 
the  benevolences  of  the  church  with  most  gratifying  results, 
a  much  larger  number  of  contributors  being  secured  as  well 
as  greatly  increased  gifts.  The  publication  of  a  weekly 
Church  Bulletin  was  begun  and  proved  a  decided  success 
in  reducing  to  a  minimum  the  giving  of  notices  from  the 
pulpit  and  in  disseminating  information  concerning  the 
church's  activities. 

On  December  6,  1899,  a  new  hymn  book  was  adopted  for 
use  in  the  Mid-week  Service  and  plans  looking  toward  a 
change  in  the  hymnal  in  use  in  the  church  services  were 


282       HISTORY   OF   FIRST   PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH. 

considered.  The  various  Missionary  Societies  oi  the  church 
all  showed  healthy  growth,  the  Golden  Hour  Circle  more 
than  doubling-  its  membership.  The  Christian  Endeavor 
Society  continued  its  faithful  work  and  the  Chinese  Sun- 
day-school maintained  its  helpful  ministrations. 

Just  previous  to  the  departure  oi  the  pastor  on  his  leave 
of  absence,  at  a  conference  held  at  his  residence  with  a 
representative  of  those  interested  in  the  remodeling  of  the 
church  and  Sunday-school  rooms,  and  with  the  architect^ 
the  plans  for  thhis  remodeling,  which  were  ultimately 
adopted,  were  practically  agreed  upon  in  outline.  It  is 
greatly  to  the  credit  oi  the  congregation  that  in  spite  of  the 
handicaps  placed  upon  the  church,  first,  by  the  illness  and 
then  by  the  resigfnation  of  the  pastor,  these  greatly-needed 
improvements  were  soon  pushed  to  completion. 

It  will  therefore  be  seen  that  Mr.  Mudge's  pastorate, 
though  so  brief,  was  not  without  its  permanent  results. 
And  it  is  a  cause  for  profound  gratitude  that  pastor  and 
people  alike  can  look  back  upon  the  few  months  of  labor 
which  they  enjoyed  together  with  unalloyed  satisfaction 
and  to  the  early  sundering  oi  the  ties  which  bound  them 
officially  with  sincere  regret. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 
Hknry  Colun  Minton,  D.D. 

The  contribution  to  the  histo^ry  of  this  venerable  church, 
to  be  expected  from  its  pastor,  will  be,  of  course,  short 
and  insignificant.  Makers  of  history  are  poor  writers  of 
the  history  which  they  make.  As  the  soldier  in  the  thick 
of  the  fight  is  too  intent  upon  his  own  struggle  to  see  how 
the  battle  goes,  much  less  the  war;  or  as  the  workman 
on  the  wall  is  toO'  busy  with  his  own  task  to  realize  how 
the  splendid  building  rises,  much  less  how  the  great  city 
grows ;  so  they  who  are  busy  doing  their  own  day's  work 
have  not  yet  gained  the  clear  and  true  perspective  which 
discloses  itself  to  the  eye  that  surveys  the  field  in  the  calm 
light  of  to-morrow's  sun. 

We  can  only  add  a  little  foot-note  to  the  chronicles  of 
the  past. 

The  present  pastorate  began  in  November,  1902,  and, 
accordingly,  covers  the  last  decade  O'f  the  20O'  years  of  the 
church's  history.  First  of  all,  we  have  to  thank  a  covenant- 
keeping  God  for  his  constant  mercies  that  have  never  failed 
us  in  these  short  years  of  happy  but  unworthy  sei-vice  in 
His  Name.  These  years  have  been  filled  with  incidents  and 
events  which  have  left  their  indelible  marks  not  only  on 
the  lives  of  us  all  but  also  on  the  life  of  the  church  itself. 

Some  pastors  are  careful  to  prepare  and  preserve  statis- 
tics of  their  work  as  it  goes  on.  Others  find  this  practice, 
if  not  distasteful,  at  least  somewhat  irksome  and  of  doubt- 
ful profit.  During  the  present  pastorate,  as  we  learn  from 
the  official  records,  260  have,  up  to  the  time  when  this  is 
written   (February,   1912,  a  little  more  than  nine  years), 

(283) 


284  HISTORY   OF   THE 

been  received  intoi  the  membership  of  this  church.  During 
this  time  91  have  died  and  47  have  been  dismissed,  includ- 
ing a  few  names  which,  for  sufficient  and  appropriate 
reasons,  have  been  dropped  from  the  roll.  It  will  thus  be 
seen  that  during  these  ten  years  many  changes  have  been 
brought  about,  and  these  changes  have  been  more  import- 
ant than  at  first  glance  might  appear. 

In  this  staid  old  community  it  is  somewhat  remarkable 
that  nearly  one-half  of  the  present  congregation  should  be, 
as  such,  less  than  ten  years  old.  Every  local  church  has  its 
O'wn  distinct  individuality  and  in  the  course  of  two  centuries 
the  marks  of  that  individuality  have  had  ample  time  to 
become  deeply  fixed  and  well  known  to  the  community. 
This  church  has  long  been  conspicuous  for  its  intelligence 
in  Christian  doctrine,  its  fidelity  to  every  trust,  and  its 
generous  leadership  in  the  support  of  all  good  works.  It 
has  not  been  swift  to  depart  from  the  ways  of  the  fathers 
or  to  forsake  the  familiar  landmarks  of  the  past. 

It  has  been  the  prolific  and  fostering  mother  of  neighbor- 
ing churches,  until  now  there  are  in  Trenton  ten  English- 
speaking,  fully  organized  churches.  It  is  easy  to  believe 
that  this  colonizing  policy  has  been  carried  out  as  far  as 
the  present  or  prospective  developments  of  the  community 
have  as  yet  warranted.  Possibly,  if  their  number  were 
smaller  their  strength,  in  the  aggregate,  would  be  greater; 
but  while  the  offspring  have  been  scattered  throughout  the 
city,  surrounding  and  circumscribing  the  '"^sphere  of  this 
church,  they  leave  the  venerable  miother  at  the  old  home- 
stead in  the  center.  It  is  perhaps  but  natural  that  the 
younger  and  possibly  more  vigorous  elements  of  the  city's 
population  should  set  up  their  residences  in  the  outlying 
districts,  thus  making  it  more  convenient  and  more  natural 
that  they  should  find  their  church  homes  also'  with  these 
younger  churches,  rather  than  with  the  old  First  in  the 
center  of  the  city.  Thus  the  familiar  difiiculties  of  the 
down-town  problem  have  begun  to  emerge. 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  285 

And  yet  the  central  churches  of  Trenton,  by  reason  of 
the  pecuHar  geography  O'f  the  city  and  of  its  converging 
trolley  lines  from  every  direction,  are  not  likely  tO'  suffer 
from  the  down-town  tendencies  as  do  the  central  churches 
of  many  larger  cities.  And,  in  any  case,  the  affectionate 
interest  that  centers  in  this  ancient  location,  with  its  his- 
toric church-yard  and  its  hallowed  burial-ground,  and  the 
fond  attachment  for  this  very  building  itself,  which  is 
cherished  by  those  to^  whom  this  church  through  all  their 
life  has  meant  so  much,  are,  under  God,  a  pretty  safe 
guarantee  that  a  good  many  years  must  yet  pass  by  before 
the  old  First  will  face  the  exigencies  of  a  change  of  loca- 
tion. 

We  may  content  ourselves  with  merely  mentioning  a 
few  of  the  outstanding  features  in  the  life  and  work  of 
this  church. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  perfectly  obvious  that  this  old 
church  is  passing  through  a  period  of  transition.  It  can 
never  again  be  what  it  was  when  the  sainted  Dr.  Hall,  of 
blessed  memory,  ministered  to  it,  or  even  when  Dr.  Dixon 
came  to  be  its  pastor.  There  were  giants  in  those  days 
that  made  this  State,  and  this  city,  and  this  church  famous 
everywhere.  .  These  saints  have  departed,  and  with  their 
sons  have  come  conditions  which  their  fathers  never  knew. 
The  very  generosity  of  their  unstinted  beneficence  may  have 
taught  the  great  body  of  the  congregation,  by  undue  reli- 
ance upon  their  gifts,  to  be  impotent  and  dependent.  This 
is  always  the  peril  that  is  incident  to  such  large  and  well- 
meant  liberality  on  the  part  of  a  generous  and  deeply 
interested  fevv. 

The  result  of  the  changes  thus  induced,  however,  will  not 
be  unfavorable  if  the  transition  can  be  successfullly  accom- 
plished. To  this  delicate  and  difficult  work,  much  thought 
and  great  care  have  been  devoted  and  we  believe  that  with 
a   growing   sense   O'f   responsibility,   the   effect   will   be   a 


286 


HISTORY   OF  THE 


strengthening  Oif  the  forces  in  respect  both  oif  material  re- 
sources and  spiritual  energies,  as  well  as  a  more  democratic 
spirit  in  that  the  burdens  of  self-support  and  the  gifts  for 
the  furtherance  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  elsewhere  will  less 
and  less  be  felt  to  be  burdens,  for  the  reason  that  they  will 
be  more  widely  and  more  equally  distributed  throughout 
the  membership  O'f  the  entire  congregation. 

Second,  with  such  new  policies  of  work,  it  will  be  noted 
that  those  policies  must  largely  be  committed  to  new  hands. 
There  are  to-day  in  the  Session  of  this  church  only  two 
ruling  elders  who  were  in  it  ten  years  ago.  It  is  a  striking 
and  melancholy  fact  that  within  a  period  of  about  three 
years  five  faithful  and  beloved  elders  of  our  Session  were 
called  to'  lay  down  their  work.  Oi  the  seven  members  of 
the  present  Session,  not  one  is  a  native  child  of  the  church 
in  which  they  serve.  This  is  fairly  indicative  of  the  changes 
in  the  membership  of  the  church  itself.  M'any  family  names 
that  were  most  prominent  in  former  generations  have 
entirely  faded  out  from  the  records  o^f  this  church  and, 
with  the  new  century  with  its  new  conditions  and  new  de- 
mands, the  pews  are  to  be  occupied  and  the  work  is  to  be 
done  in  large  measure  by  those  who  will  not  be  influenced 
by  old  associations  and  drawn  by  ancestral  traditions  and 
attachments. 

It  is  equally  obvious  that  with  the  exigency  comes  its 
own  opportunity.  Few  churches  ever  had  a  finer  field  or  a 
more  inviting  opportunity  for  aggressive  evangelistic  en- 
deavor. The  prestige  of  these  two  hundred  years  is  an 
invaluable  asset  in  the  work  for  which  this  church  is  set. 
The  present  is  the  past,  capitalized  and  at  work.  The  past 
must  lend  itself  to'  the  present  for  the  sake  of  the  future. 
Those  who  have  the  heritage  of  ancestral  associations  and 
those  who  freely  select  for  themselves  this  church  as  the 
home  and  field  of  their  Christian  service,  must  join  hands 
in  the  common  work  with  a  common  zeal  and  to^  a  common 


FIRST    PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH.  287 

purpose.  Only  thus  will  the  future  be  worthy  of  the  past. 
Only  thus  will  the  prayers  of  the  fathers  in  a  half  dozen 
generations  be  answered.  Only  thus  will  this  church, 
planted  in  virgin  soil  by  the  hand  of  faith  and  sacrifice  and 
kept  by  the  Grace  of  God  during  all  the  vicissitudes  of  the 
years,  go  on  to  coming  generations,  rich  in  blessing,  fruit- 
ful in  labors,  and  faithful  even  unto  the  end. 


APPENDIX 


(289) 


IQ    PRES 


APPENDIX  I. 


CHAPTER  I. 

1.  "William  Dockwra,  of  London,  to  whom  London  owes  the  useful 
invention  of  the  penny-post."  (Oldmixon,  "British  Empire  in  Amer- 
ica.") 

2.  Of  the  company  brought  over  by  Pitlochie,  seventy-two  are  said  to 
have  been  "prisoners,  banished  to  the  plantations,"  and  "made  a  pres- 
ent to  the  Laird."  Their  crime  was  non-conformity ;  and  on  the  pas- 
sage, "when  they  who  were  under  deck  attempted  to  worship  God  by 
themselves,  the  captain  would  throw  down  great  planks  of  wood  in 
order  to  disturb  them."  The  Rev.  Mr.  Riddel  had  already  been  im- 
prisoned several  years  in  England.  After  the  revolution  he  sailed 
for  England  (June,  1689),  but  was  "captured  by  a  French  man-of- 
war,  and  after  twenty-two  months'  imprisonment  in  France,  he  was 
at  length  exchanged  for  a  Popish  priest."  (MS.  History;  citing 
Crooksliank's  Church  of  Scotland,  vol.  ii.,  no,  428.  Cloud  of  Wit- 
nesses, App.  2,27.) 

3.  Only  four  copies  of  the  original  work  are  known  to  be  extant, 
but  it  has  been  reprinted  entire  in  the  first  volume  of  the  collections 
of  the  New  Jersey  Historical  Society,  as  an  appendix  to  Mr.  White- 
head's "East  Jersey  under  the  Proprietary  Governments."  The  facility 
and  satisfaction  of  reading  this  interesting  document  are  much  im- 
paired by  its  being  printed  in  the  obsolete  orthography  and  abbrevia- 
tions of  the  original  copy — a  custom  of  our  Historical  Societies  which 
seems  to  have  very  little  to  recommend  it,  even  to  the  antiquary.  In 
the  edition  of  Evelyn's  "Dairy,"  London,  1850,  "in  compliance  with 
a  wish  very  generally  expressed,  the  spelling  of  the  Diary  has  been 
modernized." 

4.  His  grave  is  in  the  church-yard,  with  a  Latin  inscription,  signify- 
ing: "The  ashes  of  the  very  pious  Mr.  John  Boyd,  pastor  of  this 
church  of  Calvin,  are  here  buried,  whose  labor,  although  expended 
on  a  barren  soil,  was  not  lost.  They  who  knew  him  well,  at  the  same 
time  prove  his  worth  as  rich  in  virtues.  Reader,  follow  his  footsteps, 
and  I  hope  thou  wilt  hereafter  be  happy.  He  died  August  30,  1708, 
the  29th  year  of  his  age."  Mr.  Boyd  completed  his  trials  with  the 
Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  September  27,  1706,  and  was  ordained  ten 
days  afterwards.  On  the  minutes  of  May  10,  1709,  the  following  ex- 
pressive record  is  found :  "The  Rev.  Mr.  John  Boyd  being  dead, 
what  relates  to  him  ceases." 

(291) 


292 


APPENDIX. 


The  tombstone  is  now  removed  to  the  rooms  of  the  Presbyterian 
Historical  Society,  Philadelphia,  and  a  commemorative  monument  is 
erected  at  the  place. 

5.  Some  pleasant  associations  must  have  lingered  about  the  old  name 
as  late  as  1824,  when  a  Bible  Society  being  formed  in  Trenton,  the 
name  was  adopted  of  "The  Bible  Society  of  Delaware  Falls." 

6.  In  1867  the  Long  Island  Historical  Society  published  the  "Journal 
of  a  Voyage  to  New  York  and  a  Tour  in  Several  of  the  American 
Colonies  in,  1679-80,  by  Jasper  Dankers  and  Peter  Sluyter,  of  Vieward 
in  Friesland,"  translated  from  the  Dutch  manuscript  by  Henry  C. 
Murphy.  (They  were  Labadists.)  "November  17,  1679.  The  road 
from  here  (near  Piscataway)  to  the  falls  of  the  South  (i.  e.,  Dela- 
ware) river  runs  for  the  most  part  W.  S.  W.  and  then  W.  It  is 
nothing  but  a  foot-path  for  men  and  horses. — We  saw  many  deer 
running  before  us. — As  it  was  still  daylight,  and  we  had  heard  so  much 
of  the  falls  of  the  South  river,  or  at  least  we  ourselves  had  imagined 
it,  we  went  back  to  the  river  to  look  at  them,  but  we  discovered  we 
had  deceived  ourselves  in  our  ideas.  We  had  supposed  it  was  a  place 
where  the  water  came  tumbling  down  in  great  quantity  and  force, 
from  a  great  height  above,  over  a  rock  into  an  abyss,  as  the  word 
falls  would  seem  to  imply,  and  as  we  had  heard  and  read  of  falls 
of  the  North  river  and  other  rivers.  But  these  falls  of  South  river 
are  nothing  more  than  a  place  of  about  two  English  miles  in  length, 
or  not  so  much,  where  the  river  is  full  of  stones  almost  across  it,  which 
are  not  very  large,  but  in  consequence  of  the  shallowness  the  water 
runs  rapidly  and  breaks  against  them  causing  some  noise,  but  not 
very  much.  The  place,  if  it  were  necessary,  could  be  made  navigable 
on  one  side.  As  no  Europeans  live  above  the  falls,  they  may  so 
remain." — ^pp.  170-3. 

7.  From  the  "Journal"  quoted  above,  at  the  same  pages :  "Resum- 
ing our  route  we  arrived  at  the  falls  of  the  South  river  about  sun- 
down, passing  a  creek  (Assanpink?)  where  a  new  grist  mill  was 
erected  by  the  Quakers,  who  live  hereabouts  in  great  numbers,  and 
daily  increase,  but  it  seemed  to  us  as  if  this  mill  could  not  stand  long, 
especially  if  the  flow  of  water  were  heavy,  because  the  work  was  not 
well  arranged.  We  rode  over  here  and  went  directly  to  the  house 
of  the  person  who  had  constructed  it,  who  was  a  Quaker,  where  we 
dismounted  and  willingly  dismissed  our  horses.  The  house  was  very 
small  and  from  the  incivility  of  the  inmates  and  the  unfitness  of  the 
place,  we  expected  poor  lodgings — this  miller's  house  is  the  highest  up 
the  river  hitherto  inhabited.  Here  we  had  to  lodge,  and,  although 
we  were  too  tired  to  eat,  we  had  to  remain  sitting  upright  the  whole 
night,  not  being  able  to  find  room  enough  to  lie  upon  the  ground. 
We  had  a  fire,  however,  but  the  dwellings  are  so  wretchedly  con- 
structed that  if  you   are   set   so  close  to   the  fire   as   almost  to  burn 


APPENDIX.  293 

yourself  you  cannot  keep  warm,  for  the  wind  blows  through  them 
everywhere.  Most  of  the  English  and  many  others  have  their  houses 
made  of  nothing  but  clapboards,  as  they  call  them  here  (describes 
how  they  are  made).  When  it  is  cold  and  windy  the  best  people 
plaster  them  with  clay.  Such  are  most  all  the  English  houses  in  the 
country,  except  those  they  have  which  are  built  by  people  of  other 
nations.  Now,  this  house  was  new  and  airy;  and  as  the  night  was 
very  windy  from  the  north,  and  extremely  cold  with  clear  moonshine, 

1  will  not  readily  forget  it.  About  10  o'clock,  after  we  had  breakfasted, 
we  stepped  into  a  boat  in  order  to  proceed  on  our  journey  down  the 
river.  The  water  was  then  rising,  and  we  had  to  row  against  the 
current  to  Burlington.  Before  arriving  at  this  village  we  stopped 
at  the  house  of  one  Jacob  Hendricks,  from  Holstein,  living  on  this 
side. 

On  their  return  (December  29,  1679),  at  or  near  Bordentown,  "we 
crossed  over  about  one  o'clock,  and  pursued  a  foot-path  along  the 
river,  which  led  us  to  a  cart-road,  and,  following  that,  we  came  to 
the  new  grist-mill  at  the  falls,  which,  in  consequence  of  the  great 
flow  of  water,  stood  in  danger  of  being  washed  away.  Crossing  here, 
we  began  our  journey  iii  the  Lord's  name,  for  there  are  no  houses 
from  this  point  to  Peskatteway,  an   English  village  on  the  Raritans." 

"When  we  passed  by  the  mill,  a  Quaker  was  there  who  gave  us  a 
letter,  and  told  us  it  was  difficult  traveling  on  account  of  the  height 
of  waters  in  the  creeks;  that  about  eight  miles  further  on  some 
Indians  had  come  to  live,  a  little  off  the  path  on  the  left  hand.  We 
thought   we  could   reach  there  by   evening.     We  left  the  falls   about 

2  o'clock,  following  the  ordinary  path,  which  is  the  same  for  men 
and  horses,  and  is  grown  up  on  both  sides  with  bushes,  which  wore 
our  breeches,  stockings  and  shoes  as  much  as  all  the  woods  in  Mary- 
land together.     The  road  runs  from  here  E.  N.  E." 

A  map  is  given  with  the  above  history,  made  by  the  travelers,  en- 
titled (in  Dutch)  "The  South  river  from  its  source  to  Burlington." 
The  Rancocas  is  there  "the  Ohepiessing  creek."  Mill  creek  (Molekill) 
is  the  Assanpink.  The  names  of  property  owners  or  holders,  at  the 
falls,  are  Richard  Ridgway,  218  acres ;  Wm.  Biles,  309 :  Gilbert 
Wheeler,  205;  Johan  Uncas,  149;  Robert  Scolis,  206;  Thos.  Sibeley  (?), 
108 ;  Johan  Ackerman  and  son,  394. 

8.  The  only  positive  evidence  I  have  ever  found  that  the  name 
Littleworth  was  actually  used,  is  that  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Cooley,  who 
states  that  he  had  seen  a  deed  of  two  lots,  lying  east  of  Greene  street, 
between  Second  street  (now  State)  and  the  Assanpink,  which  were 
described  as  "being  in  Littleworth."  The  date  of  the  deed  is  not 
given.  It  was  probably  the  designation  of  some  portion  of  the  land 
too  much  exposed  to  the  freshes  of  the  creek  to  be  as  valuable  as 
other  parts.  Smith's  History,  in  the  account  of  the  great  flood  at 
Delaware    Falls   in    1692,    says :     "The  first   settlers   of  the   Yorkshire 


294  APPENDIX. 

tenth  in  New  Jersey  had  several  of  them  built  upon  the  low  lands  nigh 
the  falls  of  Delaware,  where  they  had  now  lived  and  been  improving- 
near  sixteen  years.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  there  was  nothing  in  the 
character  of  the  settlers  that  suggested  the  application  of  Solomon's 
epithet:     "The  heart  of  the  wicked  is  little  worth."     Proverbs  10:20. 

Smith's  language,  when  he  mentions  the  death  of  Wm.  Trent,  Dec. 
29,  1724,  is:  "Being  a  large  trader  at  Trenton,  when  that  place  was 
laid  out  for  a  town,  it  from  him  took  its  name,  being  before  signifi- 
cantly called  Little-Worth."     (History  of  New  Jersey,  chap,  xxii.) 

In  1726  the  Legislature  granted  to  James,  son  of  Wm.  Trent,  the 
exclusive  use  of  the  Delaware  for  a  ferry,  "two  miles  above  and  two 
below  the  falls." 

Smith's  History,  under  date  of  1765,  says:  "The  courts  are  held 
at  Trenton,  a  place  of  concourse  and  lively  trade.  It  stands  at  the 
head  of  the  tide,  and  in  a  high,  pleasant  situation.  The  inhabitants 
have  a  public  library.  Of  places  of  worship  [in  Hunterdon  county], 
the  Presbyterians  are  nine,  the  Low  Dutch  do.  one,  German  do.  one,. 
Episcopalians  three,  Quakers  two,  Baptists  two." 

In  a  letter  from  Wm.  Franklin  (afterwards  Governor)  to  his  father, 
Burlington,  June  10,  1767,  he  says :  "Governor  Wentworth  [of  New 
Hampshire]  visited  me  on  his  journey  home,  and  lay  a  night  at  my 
house.  I  next  morning  accompanied  him  as  far  as  Trenton  Falls, 
where  we  spent  the  day  a  fishing,  and  supped  together."  (Franklin's 
Correspondence,  by  Duane,  p.  35.) 

"The  first  falls  in  Delaware  river  in  Trent  Town  are  opposite  to 
the  forty-seventh  mile  of  this  divisional  line" — that  is,  Lawrence's  line 
between  East  and  West  Jersey,  run  in  1743,  and  starting  from  Little 
Egg  Harbor.     {Douglass'  Summary,  ii.,  282.) 


APPENDIX.  295 


CHAPTER  II. 

1.  One  of  the  most  prosaic  downfalls  in  the  history  of  the  change  of 
names,  took  place  when  the  ancient  English  term  for  maidenhood  was 
converted  by  the  Legislature,  in  1816,  on  the  petition  of  the  inhabitants, 
into  Lawrence  for  the  township  and  Lawrenceville  for  the  town,  in 
honor  of  the  hero  of  the  frigate  Chesapeake.  It  would  be  a  parallel 
improvement  if  the  people  of  Virginia  should  drop  the  name  of  their 
State  for  one  that  would  embalm  the  name  of  Captain  John  Smith. 
The  original  Maidenhead  is  a  small  town  on  the  Thames,  in  Berkshire, 
and  is  partly  in  the  parish  of  Bray;  one,  at  least,  of  whose  vicars  is 
an  historical  personage.  Not  far  from  the  town  is  Salt  Hill,  famous 
with  scholars  for  the  Eton  Montem. 

On  January  6,  1816,  the  inhabitants  of  the  township  of  Maidenhead 
were  convened  to  consider  the  proposed  change  of  name.  The  meeting 
ordered  the  clerk  of  township  to  call  a  special  meeting  on  the  next 
Saturday  (Jan.  13).  At  that  meeting  the  proposal  was  negatived 
"by  a  majority  of  at  least  3  to  i" — not  less  than  60  against,  not  more 
than  20  for  the  measure.  A  committee  of  three  was  appointed  to  con- 
tract the  proposed  measure,  who  presented  to  the  Legislature  a  remon- 
strance, stating  that  the  township  has  borne  the  name  for  more  thari 
120  years,  and  that  the  change  was  the  suggestion  of  "men  whom  the 
inhabitants  consider  as  aliens  in  the  township."  The  statements  of  this 
page  would  be  more  exact  by  inserting,  that  by  act  of  Assembly  Jan. 
22,  1709-10,  Burlington  county  was  made  to  include  Maidenhead,  Hope- 
well, and  Amwell.  The  portion  of  Trenton,  now  above  the  Assanpink, 
was  then  in  Hopewell.  Hunterdon  county,  as  set  oflf  in  March,  1713-14, 
included  what  are  now  the  counties  of  Morris,  Sussex,  Warren,  and 
Hunterdon,  and  the  present  townships  of  Trenton,  Ewing,  Lawrence, 
and  Hopewell,  in  Mercer  county. 

2.  The  two  townships  would  have  been  a  small  circuit  for  a  mission- 
ary, compared  with  some  that  were  assigned  in  the  last  century  by 
Presbyteries  to  Supplies  and  even  to  Pastors.  In  1739  the  Presbytery 
of  New  Brunswick  directed  one  of  their  ministers  to  divide  his  time 
among  the  people  of  Allentown,  Cranbury,  Pepack,  Lebanon,  and  Mus- 
kinicunck.  In  1740  Mr.  McCray  accepted  a  call  from  Lametunck,  Leb- 
anon, Pepack,  Readingtown,  and  Bethlehem ;  and  Mr.  Robinson  was 
directed  to  supply  Middletown,  Shrewsbury,  Shark-river,  Cranbury, 
Crosswicks,  the  Forks,  Green's,  and  Pahaqually.  In  1749  Mr.  Chesnut 
was  appointed  to  supply  Amwell  for  four  weeks,  then  Penn's  Neck, 
then  Woodbury,  then  seven  Sabbaths  at  Cape  May. 

3.  January  18,  1806,  a  public  dinner  was  given  in  Trenton  to  Capt. 
(afterwards  Commodore)   Bainbridge,  upon  his  return  from  Barbary. 


296  APPENDIX. 

The  Commodore's  family  were  of  this  locality  and  church.  Edmund 
Bainbridge  was  an  elder  from  the  united  churches  of  Trenton  and 
Maidenhead  in  the  Presbytery  of  October,  1794.  John  Bainbridge  was 
one  of  the  grantees  in  the  church-deed  of  1698,  (page  15,)  and  that 
name  is  still  visible  on  a  tombstone  in  a  deserted  burying-place  in  Lam- 
berton.     The  inscription  on  Bainbridge's  grave  stands  thus : 

"In  memory  of 
'  lohn  Banbridge  who  di'd  Febry. 

the  14th.  1732.    In  ye  75th  Year  of  his  Age." 

The  first  i  in  his  name  was  inserted  after  the  name  had  been  cut. 
The  family  name  in  England  had  another  variety,  as  is  found  in  an 
epigram  quoted  in  Bayle's  Dictionary,  beginning — 

"Doctor  Bamhridge  came  from  Cambridge."  (Art.  on  John  Bain- 
bridge;   born  1582.) 

4.  There  is  "Thomas  Byerly,"  1712,  in  "New  Jersey  Archives,"  ist 
series,  vol.  iv.,  p.  169,  and  "T.  Byerley,"  1717,  p.  310. 

5.  Richard  Eayre.  This  is  probably  the  same  family  that  has  since 
been  better  known  as  Eyres  and  Eyre.  In  our  church-yard  is  the  grave 
of  "Sophia,  relict  of  Capt.  Richard  Eyres,  formerly  of  Philadelphia" ; 
February  9,  1801 :    aged  60. 

6.  Concerning  an  Episcopal  Church  in  Hopewell,  John  Talbot,  of 
Burhngton,  writes,  October  28,  1714,  "The  church  at  Hopewell  has 
been  built  these  ten  or  twelve  years,  and  never  had  a  minister  settled 
there  yet,  though  they  have  sent  several  petitions  and  addresses  to  the 
Society  (for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel),  but  I  understand  since 
that  Hopewell,  Maidenhead,  &c.,  are  kept  under  the  thumb  for  Cotton 
Mather  and  the  rest  of  the  New  England  Doctors  to  send  their  emis- 
saries ;  and  these  hirelings  have  often  come  there,  and  as  often  run 
away,  because  they  are  hirelings,  and  care  for  no  souls  but  themselves." 
Hills'  "History  of  Burlington  Episcopal  Church,"  p.  126. 

Also,  Talbot  writes  September  20,  1723,  "I  have  been  this  month  at 
Trenton,  at  Hopewell  and  Amwell,  preaching,  and  baptizing  nineteen 
persons  in  one  day."     (Hills',  p.  175.) 

J.  Bass  (Hills'  "History,"  p.  131) — no  date — speaks  of  the  "church 
at  Hopewell,  in  the  upper  part  of  the  county  of  Burlington,  which  hath 
since  been  finished,  which  was  for  some  time  supplied  by  the  Rev.  Mr. 
May,  but  is  now  without  any  minister." 

Jona.  Odell,  missionary  at  Burlington,  July  5,  1768,  is  quoted  in 
Hills'  "History,"  as  follows :  "I  think  it  my  duty  to  represent  to  the 
Society  the  importance  of  a  mission  at  Trenton.  There  is  no  other 
Episcopal  church  on  the  great  road  between  Burlington  and  Bruns- 


APPENDIX.  297 

wick,  a  distance  of  more  than  forty  miles.  Within  the  memory  of 
many  persons  yet  living,  the  inhabitants  of  Trenton  and  the  country 
for  some  distance  round  it  were  chiefly  members  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  the  few  Dissenters  that  were  among  them  were  mostly 
Quakers."  See  "New  Jersey  Archives,"  ist  series,  vol.  iv.,  pp.  156,  225. 
The  Trenton  "State  Gazette,"  May,  1881,  contained  the  following 
article  descriptive  of  the  church  property  held  by  the  Episcopalians : 

The  document,  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy,  represents  the  first 
establishment  of  the  Episcopal  Church  of  Trenton,  New  Jersey.  It 
was  located  on  a  part  of  the  5,000  acres  taken  up  by  Thomas  Hutchin- 
son, known  as  "Hutchinson's  Manor."  which  had  then,  by  the  death  of 
Thomas,  fallen  to  his  only  son,  John  Hutchinson.  Part  of  its  walls 
are  still  standing  on  a  hill  a  short  distance  beyond  the  State  Lunatic 
Asylum.  It  was  used  by  the  Episcopalians  until  the  building  of  their 
church  (St.  Michael's)  in  Trenton. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  Thomas  Tindall  was  most  prominent  in  its 
establishment  and  erection,  and  was  one  of  its  first  Wardens. 

Thomas  Hutchinson  (the  proprietor)  had  only  one  son,  "John" 
here  named.  John  had  two  sons,  Marmaduke  and  Isaac.  Marmaduke 
did  not  attain  manhood.  Isaac  was  living  in  Trenton  in  1749,  after 
which  all  trace  is  lost  of  him,  and  of  the  descendants  of  Thomas 
Hutchinson. 

"Richard  Ingoldsby,  Esquire,  Lieut.  Governor  of  Her  Majesties 
Provinces  of  New  Jersey,  New  York,  and  all  the  Territories,  &c, 
depending  thereon,  in  America  &c. — 

To  Thomas  Tindall,  Roger  Parke,  Robert  Eaton  and  Andrew 
Heath,  Greeting. — 

Whereas  several  of  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Township  of  Hope- 
well, in  her  Majesty's  Province  of  New  Jersey,  out  of  a  pious  designe, 
to  promote  the  honour  of  God,  and  the  advancement  of  the  Protestant 
religion,  and  Church  of  England,  as  by  law  established;  and  in  order 
thereunto,  have  purchased  a  convenient  Tract  of  Land  of  John 
Hutchinson,  deceased,  as  by  the  deed  of  sale  thereof,  bearing  date, 
the  twentieth  day  of  April  Anno  Dom.  1703,  for  the  erecting  and 
building  a  house  for  the  more  decent  worshipping  of  God,  accord- 
ing to  the  usage  aforesaid ;  and  have  by  voluntary  contributions  begun 
to  erect  and  build  the  same;  for  which  they  have  also  desired  my 
Lycense, — 

These  are  therefore  to  Lycense,  authorise  or  empower  you,  or  any 
three  or  more  of  you,  to  erect  and  build,  upon  the  said  Tract  of  Land, 
as  purchased,  as  aforesaid ;  a  church  or  place  for  the  more  decent 
worshipping  of  God,  according  to  the  forms  and  worship  of  the 
Church  of  England  as  by  law  established ;  and  also  to  take  and  receive 
such  gifts  and  Contributions  as  well-disposed  people  shall  voluntarily 
bestow,  for  the  said  pious  designe. — 
Hereby   appointing  ye   the    said    Thomas   Tindall   and    Robert   Eaton 


298 


APPENDIX. 


to  be  church  wardens,  of  the  said  church ;  to  be  called  by  the  name 
of  "Christ  Church",  for  the  year  next  ensuing. — 

Giving  hereby  and  Granting  unto  you;  in  Conjunction,  with  the 
minister  and  vestry,  of  the  said  church,  all  such  power  and  privileges 
as  the  minister,  Church  wardens  and  vestrymen,  usually  have  and 
enjoy  in   the   Kingdom  of    England. 

In  witness  whereof,  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand  and  scale,  the 
third  day  of  April,  Anno  Reg.  Regn  Anna  Nunc  Anatic  &c. — Anno 
Dom.  1705. 

By  his  honners  Commd.  Rich.  Ingoldsby. 

J.  Bass." 

7.  "John  Dagworthy,"  1732,  New  Jersey  Archives,  vol.  v.,  p.  317. 

8.  Richard  Scudder  and  Jacob  Reeder,  whose  names  are  at  the  head 
of  the  list  on  page  19,  were  lineal  ancestors  of  Jasper  S.  Scudder 
and  wife,  their  great-great-grandfathers  respectively.  The  great-great- 
grandfathers, great-grandfathers,  grandfathers  and  fathers  of  each  are 
buried  in  the  Ewing  church-yard ;  and  Jasper  S.  Scudder  and  wife 
have  a  son  and  grandson  there — seven  generations  (including  J.  S. 
S.  and  wife,  living  in  1867). 

9.  The  genealogy  of  the  family  of  Burroughs  may  be  found  in 
Riker's  Annals  of  Newtown,  Queen's  County,  New  York,  published  in 
1852.  The  first  of  the  name  came  from  England  to  Salem,  Massa- 
chusetts, in  1637,  and  died  in  1678.  His  name  was  John.  His  son, 
Joseph,  "a  liberal  supporter  of  the  Presbyterian  ministry  in  Newtown," 
died  in  1738.  Joseph's  son,  John,  who  married  Margaret  Renne  in, 
1721,  "owned  land  at  Trenton,"  and  died  at  Newtown,  July  7,  1750. 
Mr.  Charles  Burroughs,  who  has  been  a  trustee  of  our  church  since 
1826,  is  a  great  grandson  of  the  grantee  in  Lockart's  deed.  His  father,. 
John  Burroughs,  died  in  Trenton,  April  28,  1842,  in  his  eighty-ninth 
year. 

10.  In  Mr.  Riker's  work  there  is  also  given  a  history  of  the  Socket 
family,  which  appears  to  have  been  that  with  which  the  two  grantees 
of  the  name,  and  also  the  clergyman  hereafter  mentioned,  were  con- 
nected.    Simon  was  a  family-name. 

11.  The  Ewing  Church  of  1795  was  begim  that  year,  but  not  finished 
until  October  7,  1797.  The  first  sermon  in  it  was  by  Mr.  Rue,  October 
15.  1797-  (See  sermon  by  Rev.  David  Judson  Atwater  at  the  last 
service  in  that  church,  March  3,  1867,  previous  to  its  being  removed 
for  a  new  one.)  The  new  stone  church  was  dedicated  November  20,. 
1867.     Dr.  J.  Hall  preached,  Ps.  96 :  9. 

12.  Mrs.  Esther  Mcllvaine,  who  died  in  Ewing,  October,  i860. 

13.  For  fuller  history  of  Hopewell,  see  "A  History  of  'the  Old  Pres- 
byterian   congregation    of    the   people    of    Maidenhead    and    Hopewell,. 


APPENDIX.  299 

more    especially    of    the    First    Presbyterian    Church    of    Hopewell    at 
Pennington,  N.  J."     By  George  Hale,  D.D.,  Philadelphia,  1876. 

14.  Pennington  "was  first  named  Queenstown,  in  honor  of  Queen 
Anne."  "The  settlement  of  the  village  began  near  1708."  "As 
early  as  1747  it  began  to  be  called  Pennington."  "The  old  congrega- 
tion was  known  in  its  earliest  history  as  'the  people  of  Maidenhead 
and  Hopewell.' "     Hale,  p.  47. 

15.  The  Presbytery  of  East  Jersey  was  formed  by  the  Synod  in 
1733,  by  dividing  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia.  In  1738  the  Presby- 
teries of  East  Jersey  and  Long  Island  were  united  as  the  Presbytery 
of  New  York.  In  a  subsequent  day  of  the  same  sessions  (May  25, 
1738),  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick  was  formed  out  of  the 
Presbytery  of  New  York.  Its  bounds  were  "all  to  the  northward  and 
Presbytery  of  New  York.  Its  bounds  were  "all  to  the  northward  and 
also  Staten  Island,  Piscatua,  Amboy,  Boundbrook,  Basking  Ridge, 
Turkey,  Rocksiticus,  Minisink,  Pequally,  and  Crosswicks."  (Printed 
"Records,"  pp.  104,  134,  136.)  This  left  our  churches  in  the  Pres- 
bytery of   Philadelphia. 

16.  In  1886  I  found  in  possession  of  Mrs.  Cook,  of  Trenton,  a  volume 
of  Records  of  Hopewell  Church,  which  Dr.  Hale  had  not  seen  until 
I  showed  it  to  him,  with  various  items  from  1730  to  1785.  I  made  a 
memorandum  of  these,  the  most  important  being  a  list  of  com- 
municants of  "Trenton"  (Ewing),  from  1733  to  1737,  at  the  end  of 
the  Session  book  of  the  First  Church  (1806  to  1838),  pp.  263-g,  which 
see. 


1 


300  APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER  III. 

1.  In  that  inexhaustible  entertainment  for  the  local  antiquary,  "Wat- 
son's Annals  of  Philadelphia,"  is  a  history  and  engraving  of  the  house 
occupied  by  Col.  Trent  in  Philadelphia  from  1703  to  1709.  It  is  the 
house  still  standing  (1858)  at  the  corner  of  Second  street  and  Norris' 
alley,  and  was  first  inhabited  by  William  Penn;  (Annals,  Edition  of 
1850,  vol.  i.,  164.)  In  a  Trenton  newspaper  of  1840  I  have  marked  this 
announcement:  "Died  at  her  residence  near  this  city,  December  20, 
1840,  Mary,  widow  of  Nathan  Beakes,  in  her  79th  year — the  last  per- 
son that  had  borne  the  name  of  Trent." 

In  Hills'  "History  of  the  Episcopal  Church  in  Burlington,"  I  find 
reference  as  follows :  "I  waited  on  the  Governor  on  Sunday  morning 
with  Mr.  Trent,  the  chief  man  in  the  church."  (Letter  of  Talbot  to 
the  Bishop  of  London,  October  12,  1715),  p.  141. 

From  Trenton,  September  20,  1723,  Daniel  Coxe  and  William  Trent 
write  to  the  Secretary  of  the  S.  P.  G.  about  the  church  in  Burlington,  p. 

173- 

A  facsimile  of  Trent's  signature  is  in  the  "New  Jersey  Archives,"  ist 
series,  vol.  v.,  p.  77. 

2.  A  facsimile  of  Stacy's  signature  is  in  the  "New  Jersey  Archives," 
1st  series,  vol.  v.,  p.  317. 

3.  The  deed  is  in  the  possession  of  our  trustees.  It  is  recorded  in 
book  AT.,  p.  108.  The  grant  is  described  as  "a  certain  piece  or  lot  of 
land  lying  on  the  north  side  of  Second  street,  that  goes  to  the  iron- 
works in  Trenton,  containing  in  length  150  feet,  and  in  breadth  150 
feet;  with  all  the  mines,  minerals,  woods,  fishings,  hawkings,  huntings, 
waters,  and  water-courses."  The  iron-works  were  about  a  mile  east- 
ward of  the  church. 

4.  The  original  is  with  the  trustees ;  it  is  recorded  in  book  AT.,  p. 
114.  There  is  a  tradition  that  Andrus  gave  the  lot  for  the  church. 
The  church  first  went  by  the  name  of  "Anderson's  Meeting-house," 
but  Andrus  was  oflfended  about  letting  of  pews.  The  fourth  and  fifth 
generations  in  descent  from  Enoch  Andrus,  (Anderson,)  are  now  mem- 
bers of  the  city  church. 

5.  Enoch  Anderson  is  mentioned  in  a  letter  of  Theos.  Severns,  Tren- 
ton, May  29,  1750,  in  "New  Jersey  Archives,"  vol.  vii.,  p.  546,  as  "a 
person  intended  to  be  appointed  sheriff  of  Hunterdon  county  by  your 
Excellency,  upon  which  Mr.  John  Coxe  replied  'the  Governor  dare  not 
do  it.'" 

In  the  "Pennsylvania  Gazette"  of  June  15,  1758,  is  the  following: 
"To  Be  Sold.    The  House  and  Lot  of  Land  wherein  Enoch  Anderson, 


APPENDIX.  301 

Deceased,  lately  lived ;  as  also  several  other  Lots  of  Land,  situate  in 
Trenton,  in  the  county  of  Hunterdon,  belonging  to  the  Estate  of  the 
said  Enoch  Anderson.  The  Titles  to  the  same  are  indisputable.  Any 
Person  or  Persons  inclinable  to  purchase  the  same,  or  any  Part  thereof, 
by  applying  to  John  Anderson,  in  Maidenhead,  or  to  Abraham  Cott- 
nam,  in  Trenton  aforesaid,  may  be  informed  of  the  Conditions,  &c." 

In  the  present  church-porch  is  a  grave-stone,  "In  memory  of  Enoch 
Anderson,  who  departed  this  life  April  15th,  1756.  Aged  59  years."  In 
the  church-yard  hedge  is  the  grave  of  "Margaret  Anderson;  1733." 
Among  the  oldest  is  that  of  Robert  Archbold,  who  died  September  2, 
1734.     Aged  25  years. 

In  the  minutes  of  the  Philadelphia  Synod,  September  19,  1733,  is  this 
record :  "Upon  a  supplication  of  the  people  of  Trenton,  presented  to 
the  Synod  by  the  committee  of  the  Synod,  it  was  recommended  by  said 
committee  that  the  commission  of  the  Synod  do  allow  something  out 
of  the  fund  to  Trenton,  as  to  them  shall  appear  needful,  when  they  are 
settled  with  a  minister :  which  overture  being  read  was  approved  by 
the  Synod  nemine  contradicento." 

6.  In  the  records  of  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  Sept.  19,  1734, 
"a  letter  from  the  people  of  Trenton  desiring  care  to  be  taken  to  pro- 
cure a  minister  for  them  was  read ;  but  nothing  was  or  could  be  done 
to  purpose  about  it  at  that  time." 

7.  A  letter  from  William  W.  Cowell  to  J.  Hall,  dated  Wrentham, 
Mass.,  Nov.  16,  1871,  says : 

"Hon.  Ezra  Wilkinson  is  collecting  materials  for  a  history  of  this 
town:  and  as  the  descendant  of  Joseph  Cowell  he  purchased  the  old 
homestead  in  the  town  where  his  sons  Joseph,  David  and  Ebenezer 
lived,  and  where  the  first  Joseph,  the  second  Joseph,  Samuel,  son  of 
Joseph  II,  my  father  William,  the  son  of  Samuel,  all  lived  and  died, 
where  I  was  born  and  lived  some  thirty  years,  and  where  my  sister 
now  resides,  and  where  seven  generations  of  the  Cowell  race  and  name 
and  blood  have  gathered  from  time  to  time." 

"Joseph  Cowell  married  Martha  Fales  in  1701,  and  lived  the  first 
nine  years  of  his  life  in  the  then  town  of  Dorchester,  but  which  was 
soon  annexed  to  Wrentham.  In  fact  it  was  within  two  miles  of  the  old 
homestead  and  some  twenty-five  miles  from  Dorchester  proper.  The 
record  of  his  marriage,  the  birth  of  all  his  children,  including  my  great- 
uncle  David,  do  not  appear  at  all  upon  the  records  of  that  town,  but 
upon  the  records  of  Wrentham." 

Mr.  W.  W.  Cowell  sent  me  the  engraved  family-tree :  the  root,  "John 
Cowell  came  from  England" ;  the  main  stem,  "Joseph  settled  in  Wren- 
tham, U.  S.,  A.D.  1690" — father  of  David,  Ebenezer  and  Joseph. 

David  L.  Cowell  wrote  me  in  1874,  from  Brockton,  "that  David 
Cowell  was  born  December  12,  1704,"  as  recorded  in  the  Wrentham 
records.     "Whether  the  spot  on  which  he  was  born  was  really  within 


302  APPENDIX. 

the  limits  of  Dorchester  and  subsequently  annexed  to  Wrentham,  or 
whether  it  was  only  supposed  to  have  been  in  Dorchester  until  a  more 
accurate  survey  decided  that  it  belonged  to  Wrentham,  I  cannot  posi- 
tively say.  I  have,  however,  seen  an  old  list  of  taxpapers,  dated  as 
early  as  1704,  where  his  name  appeared  as  of  Wrentham.  *  *  *  it 
would  seem  that  it  would  be  more  appropriate  to  credit  his  birthplace 
to  Wrentham." 

8.  Cornelius  Ringo's  name  is  in  the  advertisement  quoted  on  p.  64. 
A  meeting  of  the  inhabitants  of  Hunterdon  county  was  held  "at  the 

house  of  John  Ringo  in  Amwell,"  July  8,  1774,  Samuel  Tucker  in  the 
chair,  expressing  loyalty  to  George  III,  but  protesting  against  inter- 
ference with  colonial  rights,  and  appointing  a  committee  to  unite  with 
the  other  counties  in  choosing  delegates  to  Congress.  The  committee 
were,  Samuel  Tucker,  John  Mehelm,  John  Hart,  Isaac  Smith,  Charles 
Coxe,  Joachim  Griggs,  Benjamin  Brearley,  Abraham  Hunt,  John  Emley. 
"Minutes  of  Provincial  Congress  and  Council  of  Safety  of  New  Jer- 
sey," Trenton,  1877,  P-  I3- 

9.  I  have  a  writ  of  summons,  dated  Sept.  6,  1720,  commanding  Henry 
Venhook   (Verbrook?),   Francis  Kaine  and  Hezekiah  Bonham,  junior 

(see  p.  15),  and  Hezekiah  Bunill  to  appear  at  the  next  General  Quarter 
Sessions  of  the  Peace  at  Trenton,  witness,  John  Porterfield,  "one  of 
our  Justices  of  the  Peace  of  the  county  (Hunterdon)":  Signed  Wm. 
D.  Yard,  clerk,  and  addressed  to  Nathaniel  Moor,  constable.  The  seal 
is  a  crown  and  legend,  "Tout  pour — "  the  rest  illegible. 

10.  An  article  in  the  New  York  Observer,  a  few  years  ago,  said,  "In 
the  register  of  baptisms  by  the  first  pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Philadelphia,  Rev.  Jedediah  Andrews,  are  found  the  names 
of  Richard  Scudder  and  his  nine  children,  living  on  the  river  five  miles 
above  the  'Falls  of  the  Delaware,'  as  the  site  of  Trenton  was  then 
called.  Richard  Scudder  had  come  from  Long  Island  in  1704,  and 
purchased  a  tract  two  miles  in  extent  on  the  Delaware  river,  a  por- 
tion of  which  is  still  possessed  by  his  descendants.  Rev.  Jasper  Scud- 
der Mcllvaine,  for  some  years  missionary  of  the  Presbyterian  Board 
at  Shantung,  China,  is  the  seventh  in  lineal  descent  from  Richard 
Scudder  and  William  Mcllvaine,  one  of  the  first  elders  of  the  First 
Church  of  Philadelphia." 

Rev.  Jasper  Scudder  Mcllvaine,  who  died  in  China  in  1881,  was  a 
grandson  of  Jasper  Smith  Scudder,  the  Treasurer  of  the  First  Church, 
Trenton,  in  1859,  and  died  in  1877. 

11.  Andrew  Reed  was  possibly  the  first  postmaster  of  Trenton.  (See 
note  on  p.  63.) 

12.  "Boaz"  is  so  written  in  the  will,  but  Prof.  Henry  Reed,  of  Phil- 
adelphia (grandson  of  General  Joseph),  writes  to  me,  October  27,  1876: 
"His  mother's  name  being  Theodosia  Bowes,  who  was  a  daughter  of 
Francis  Bowes." 


APPENDIX.  303 

"Lieutenant-Colonel    Bowes    Read"    is    mentioned    in    "Minutes    of 
Provincial  Congress,"  pp.  470,  573,  575. 
For  Andrew  Reed's  daughter,  Mrs.  Montgomery,  see  page  135. 

13.  In  "The  Presbyterian,"  of  August  17,  1861,  is  an  obituary  of 
Upton  Reid,  who  died  in  Harford  county,  Maryland,  July  17,  1861, 
aged  81  years.  "He  was  the  sixth  of  nine  children  of  Clotworthy  Reid 
and  Mary  Alexander,  of  County  Antrim,  Ireland." 

"His  mother  died  when  he  was  five  years  of  age,  and  his  father 
when  he  was  thirteen.  He  came  to  this  country  when  very  young. 
For  some  years  he  lived  in  Chester  county.  Pennsylvania,  but  for  more 
than  forty  within  a  mile  of  where  he  died."  Rev.  A.  B.  Cross,  of 
Baltimore,  writes  me  that  "the  above  Clotworthy  Reid  and  Mary 
Alexander  were  married  January  18,  1770,  and  he  died  May  2,  1793, 
aged  forty-three." 

14.  Ralph  Smith's  name  follows  that  of  Andrew  Reed,  and  Samuel 
Johnson  that  of  Cornelius  Ringo.  Both  are  in  a  list  of  subscribers 
of  the  "Province  of  New  Jersey,"  to  the  first  edition  of  Edward's 
"Life  of  Brainard,"  1749.  In  a  letter  of  Theophilus  Severns  to  Gov- 
ernor Belcher,  Trenton,  May  29,  1750,  he  relates  conversation  of  Johi? 
Coxe,  unfavorable  to  the  Governor  "when  I  was  in  company  with  Mr. 
John  Coxe,  Judge  Nevill,  Ralph  Smith  and  others." 

15.  "Mr.  Thomas's  interest  in  Trenton  had  been  bought  by  Robert 
Lettice  Hooper  for  £2,900  sterling — thought  a  good  sale."  Letter  of 
Governor  Belcher,  June  8,  1751,  "Analytical  Index." 

16.  "The  papers  of  Lewis  Morris,"  vol.  iv.  of  Collections  of  the  New 
Jersey  Historical  Society,  pp.  9,  325,  etc.  Morris's  rent  in  Trenton  was 
sixty  pounds  ($160),  the  landlord  expending  £200  "in  putting  of  it 
into  repair  and  building  a  wing  for  a  kitchen  to  lodge  servants."  "The 
lessee  might  cut  his  fire-wood,  but  not  of  timber-trees."  "Our  house  is 
good,"  writes  the  Governor  in  1744,  "and  not  one  chimney  in  it  smokes. 
I  have  not  yet  got  into  ploughing  and  sowing,  having  but  little  ground, 
and  that  but  ordinary,  and  much  out  of  order,  but  shall  try  a  little  at 
it,  when  I  get  it  into  something  better  fence,  which  I  am  doing." 


304  APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

1.  Mr.  Tennent's  warmth  was  undoubtedly  increased  by  his  belief  that 
the  cautiousness  of  the  Synod  in  regard  to  the  scholarship  of  candidates 
arose  from  a  want  of  confidence  in  the  accompHshments  of  the  pupils  of 
the  Neshaminy  Academy,  established  by  his  father.  The  arts  and 
sciences  were  not  thought  to  be  as  well  taught  there  as  the  classics. 
Thus,  Dr.  Alexander  remarks  that  the  schism  "was  actually  produced 
by  the  Log  College."  (Log  College,  p.  57.)  Rowland  was  educated 
there,  and,  of  course,  by  the  Synod's  rule,  was  subject  to  examination. 

2.  The  old  congregation  were  represented  by  Enoch  Armitage,  Thomas 
Burrowes,  Edward  Hart  and  Timothy  Baker;  the  "new  erection"  by 
Benjamin  Stevens,  John  Anderson,  Samuel  Hunt,  and  Joseph  Birt. 
"We  had  the  privilege,"  wrote  Rowland,  "minister  at  Hopewell,"  "of 
Maidenhead  meeting-house  [1738],  and  my  people  built  a  meeting- 
house in  Hopewell.  There  is  another  town  [township]  lying  contiguous 
to  Hopewell,  which  is  called  Amwell.  They  petitioned  for  a  part  of 
my  time,  viz.,  one  Sabbath  in  three."  William  Tennent  writes  in  Octo- 
ber, 1744 :  "About  four  weeks  since  I  gathered  a  church,  and  celebrated 
the  Lord's  Supper  at  a  new  erected  congregation  in  the  towns  of 
Maidenhead  and  Hopewell."  ("Gillies'  Collections,"  ii.,  137,  323.)  This 
was  a  mile  west  of  Pennington,  and  was  but  a  temporary  secession, 
both  parties  reuniting  afterwards  in  the  old  church,  probably  in  1766. 

3.  The  unhappy  personal  effects  lingered  still  longer.  Dr.  Green  was 
ordained  in  Philadelphia  in  1787,  and  says :  "The  arrangements  for  my 
ordination  had  been  made  with  a  view  to  mingle,  and,  if  possible,  to 
harmonize  the  old  side  and  the  new  side  members  of  the  Presbytery. 
For  although  twenty-nine  years  had  elapsed,  since  in  1758  the  rival 
Synods  had  become  united,  two  Presbyteries  of  Philadelphia  had 
existed,  composed  severally  of  the  litigant  parties ;  and  the  aged  mem- 
bers of  both  sides  had  retained  something  of  the  old  bitter  feelings 
towards  each  other."     ("Life,"  p.  154.) 

The  church  where  Dr.  Green  was  ordained  and  installed  had  the  less 
favorable  associations  for  the  purpose  mentioned,  as  it  was  the  one 
built  by  the  exertions  of  Gilbert  Tennent,  for  a  people  described  by 
Dr.  Franklin  as  "originally  disciples  of  Mr.  Whitefield."  In  com- 
pliance with  the  philosopher's  advice,  Tennent  "asked  of  ez'erybody; 
and  he  obtained  a  much  larger  sum  than  he  expected,  with  which  he 
erected  the  capacious  and  elegant  meeting-house  that  stands  in  Arch 
street."     (Franklin's  Autobiography:     Sparks,  i.,  168.) 

4.  The  custom  in  Newark  as  late  as  1791.  IVhitehcad's  Perth  Am- 
boy,  p.  319. 


APPENDIX.  305 

5.  The  Friends  were  also  traveling  about  from  meeting  to  meeting 
during  this  period.  From  "John  Griffith's  Journal,"  London  and  Phil- 
adelphia, 1780,  pp.  55  and  56,  we  take  these  items : 

"About  the  latter  end  of  the  year  1744 — I  went  into  West  Jersey  to 
visit  the  following  meetings,  as  I  found  my  mind  drawn  thereunto, 
viz. :  Haddonfield,  Chester,  Evesham,  Mt.  Holly,  Ancocas,  Old  Spring- 
field, Trenton  and  Burlington  quarterly  meetings." 

"In  the  fifth  month  (1746)  I  visited  the  county  of  Bucks,  and  had 
meetings  at  Middletown,  Smith,  the  Falls,"  etc. 

6.  The  sessions  of  the  Commission  appear  to  have  been  opened  as 
formally  as  those  of  the  Synod.  I  have  before  me,  in  a  pamphlet,  "A 
Sermon  preached  before  the  Commission  of  the  Synod  at  Philadelphia, 
April  20th,  1735.  By  E.  Pemberton,  Pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church 
in  the  City  of  New  York."  The  dedication  "to  the  Reverend  Com- 
mission of  the  Synod,"  refers  to  its  having  been  "preached  in  obedience 
to  your  commands." 

7.  The  address  to  the  Governor,  signed  by  Cowell,  and  the  Gov- 
ernor's reply,  are  in  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette  of  June  9,  1743. 

8.  The  Synod's  "Fund"  was  for  such  "pious  uses"  as  were  desig- 
nated from  time  to  time. 

The  "Analytical  Index"  gives  the  heads  of  several  communications 
that  passed  between  Governor  Franklin  and  the  Royal  authority  in 
England  in  reference  to  a  petition  of  the  Presbyterian  clergy  in  New 
Jersey,  for  a  charter  for  the  Widows'  Fund.  See  index  under  dates 
of  May  II,  1772;  February  27,  April  10,  June  2,  October  18,  1773.  The 
charter  was  granted. 

9.  It  may  have  been  expected  that  some  notice  should  be  found 
in  this  chapter  of  the  celebrated  case  which  was  before  the  Supreme 
Court  at  Trenton,  in  1742,  in  which  the  Rev.  William  Tennent  was 
arraigned  for  perjury,  on  account  of  the  evidence  he  had  given  to  prove 
that  the  Rev.  John  Rowland  was  far  from  Hunterdon  county  when  Bell, 
assuming  his  name,  stole  a  horse.  But  I  trust  that  an  authentic  account 
of  that  whole  affair  will  soon  be  furnished  by  a  more  competent  hand, 
and  I  believe  that  it  will  be  made  to  appear  that  there  is  no  foundation 
for  the  story  of  the  supernatural  mission  of  witnesses  from  Maryland 
to  Trenton.  A  paper  to  this  effect,  by  Mr.  Richard  S.  Field,  has 
already  appeared  in  the  "Proceedings  of  the  New  Jersey  Historical 
Society."     (Vol.  vi.,  p.  31.) 

An  article  upon  "The  Trial  of  the  Rev.  William  Tennent,"  by  Hon. 
Henry  W.  Green,  in  the  "Princeton  Review,"  July,  1868,  concludes : 
"We  assert,  therefore,  with  perfect  confidence,  that  his  deliverance 
was  not  effected  by  supernatural  means,  and  that  the  attendance  of 
the  witnesses  was  not  procured  by  a  dream." 

21    PRES 


3o6  APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER  V. 

1.  Among  the  debits  of  the  Treasurer's  book,  in  account  with  the 
Trenton  parsonage,  are  frequently  to  be  found  such  items  as,  "to  hoops 
for  the  well-bucket,"  "for  cleaning  the  well,"  "to  a  rope  for  the  well." 

2.  In  a  letter  of  1730-1,  quoted  in  Whitehead's  History  of  Perth 
Amboy  (p.  155),  the  writer  remarks  that  in  1715  "there  were  but  four 
or  five  houses  in  the  thirty  miles  between  Inian's  Ferry  (New  Bruns- 
wick) and  the  Falls  of  Delaware;  but  now  the  whole  way  it  is  almost 
a  continued  lane  of  fences  and  good  farmers'  houses,  and  the  whole 
country  is  there  settled  or  settling  very  thick." 

3.  The  barracks  are  frequently  mentioned  in  the  minutes  of  the 
Provincial  Congress.  January  13,  1776,  "The  prisoners  of  war,  now 
in  the  barracks  at  Trenton"  are  ordered  to  be  removed  by  the  Com- 
mittee of  Observation,  "in  order  that  the  Continental  forces  may 
occupy  the  said  barracks."  February  2,  Abraham  Hunt  and  Alexander 
Chambers  were  requested  to  value  the  blankets  in  the  barracks,  and 
appropriate  them  to  the  use  of  the  Continental  forces.  At  the  same 
session  Alexander  Chambers  and  William  Tucker  were  appointed 
barrack-masters,  and  instructed  to  repair  the  barracks  for  use.  It  was 
as  early  as  1758  that  the  Colonial  Legislature  provided  for  barracks  at 
Trenton  and  four  other  points,  each  capable  of  holding  300  men. 
A  full  relation  of  the  particulars  is  given  by  a  member  and  trustee  of 
our  First  Church,  Adjutant-General  William  S.  Stryker,  in  the  "Pro- 
ceedings of  the  New  Jersey  Historical  Society,"  January,  1881. 

In  a  letter  of  Governor  Franklin  to  the  British  Secretary  of  State, 
1766,  the  statement  is  made  that  many  of  the  king's  troops  "acknowl- 
edge that  they  are  better  accommodated  here  than  they  had  ever  been 
at  barracks  in.  Europe."  See  "Archives  of  New  Jersey,"  first  series, 
vol.  ix.,  p.  577. 

In  the  Pontiac  War,  1763-4,  the  persecuted  Christian  Moravian 
Indians,  on  their  way  from  Pennsylvania  to  New  York,  were  allowed 
quarters  at  the  barracks  in  the  towns  through  which  they  passed. 
"They  spent  the  first  night  at  Bristol  and  the  second  in  the  barracks 
at  Trenton.  Here  (Joseph)  Fox  and  (William)  Logan  took  leave 
of  them."  "The  Indians  spent  eight  days  in  the  barracks  at  Amboy." 
De  Schweinitz's  "Life  of  Zeisberger,"  chap.  xv. 

4.  Items  collated  since  the  completion  of  the  text  of  chapter  v.,  are 
as  follows : 

"I  have  seen  several  of  the  principal  towns  of  the  government,  and 
have  not  seen  one  that  has  in  it  200  dwelling  houses."  Governor 
Belcher,  in  "New  Jersey  Archives,"  vol.  vii.,  p.  66   (1747). 

"Trenton,    with    130   houses.     Near   to  this   lie   the   valuable   copper 


APPENDIX.  307 

mines,  for  the  use  of  the  one-third  of  which  Governor  Morris  within 
eighteen  months,  in  1755,  paid  five  thousand  pounds."  Israel  AcreHus, 
in  "Description  of  Swedish  churches  of  New  Sweden,"  Stockhohn, 
1759,  reprinted  by  the  Historical  Society  of  Pennsylvania. 

"Two  other  large  and  thriving  towns,  which  make  much  more  use 
of  the  post,  *  *  *  viz.,  Trenton  and  Brunswick."  Dr.  Franklin, 
Deputy  Postmaster-General,  April  23,  1761.  In  "New  Jersey 
Archives,"  ix.,  p.  267. 

In  the  "letter  addressed  to  the  Abbe  Raynal,"  by  Thomas  Paine,  in 
answer  to  the  Abbe's  account  of  the  American  Revolution,  Phila- 
delphia, 1782,  referring  to  the  battle  of  Trenton,  he  says  of  the  town : 
"Trenton  is  situated  on  a  rising  ground,  about  three-quarters  of  a 
mile  distant  from  the  Delaware,  on  the  eastern  or  Jersey  side,  and  cut 
into  two  divisions  by  a  small  creek  or  rivulet."  "The  upper  division, 
which  is  to  the  northeast,  contains  about  seventy  or  eighty  houses, 
and  the  lower  about  forty  or  fifty.  The  ground  on  each  side  this 
creek,  and  on  which  the  houses  are,  is  likewise  rising,  and  the  two 
divisions  present  an  agreeable  prospect  to  each  other,  with  the  creek 
between,  on  which  there  is  a  small  stone  bridge  of  one  arch." 

Rev.  Manasseh  Cutler's  description  (1787)  in  "Proceedings  of  New 
Jersey  Historical  Society,"  1873.  p.  93,  is  as  follows :  "We  made  our 
first  stage  to  Trenton  (from  Princeton,  via  Maidenhead),  thirteen 
miles,  at  Vandegrift's  tavern,  at  the  ferry.  This  town  is  spread  over 
a  considerable  space  of  ground.  There  are  parallel  streets  that  pass 
through  the  body  of  the  town,  and  are  connected  by  cross  streets  at 
right  angles.  There  are  no  considerable  buildings.  The  town  is  at  a 
small  distance  from  the  Delaware  river,  and  is  situated  on  a  river 
(Assanpink  creek),  that  comes  in  from  the  northeast  and  unites  with 
the  Delaware  at  this  place.  There  is  only  one  small  meeting-house 
and  one  church  in  this  town.  I  therefore  conclude  that  the  people 
are  not  much  disposed  to  attend  public  worship,  for  the  two  houses, 
I  presume,  are  not  sufficient  to  hold  one-third  of  the  inhabitants.  Over 
the  river  in  the  compact  part  of  the  town  is  a  spacious  stone  bridge, 
supported  by  arches  built  with  stone  and  lime,  and  with  a  high  wall  on 
each  side  handsomely  laid.  At  the  foot  of  the  bridge  are  mills  for 
grinding  and  bolting  wheat.  These  mills  are  contained  in  a  very  large 
stone  building  three  stories  high,  and  are  remarkable  for  the  prodigious 
quantity  and  excellent  quality  of  the  flour  which  is  ground  in  them 
every  twenty-four  hours.  The  houses  in  this,  and  indeed  in  all  the 
towns  in  New  Jersey,  are  built  in  a  style  very  different  from  that  of 
New  England.  But  I  think  it  far  less  elegant,  and  by  no  means  so 
good  an  effect  on  the  eye.  The  want  of  large  meeting-houses  and 
towering  steeples  is  a  great  defect.  Neither  are  the  houses  so 
spacious    or    so    well-built." 

"This  town,  with  Lamberton,  which  joins  it  on  the  south,  contains 
upwards  of  200  houses,  besides  public  buildings.     In  the  neighborhood 


3o8  APPENDIX. 

of  this  pleasant  town  are  several  gentlemen's  seats,  finely  situated  on 
the  banks  of  the  Delaware  and  ornamented  with  taste  and  elegance." 
From  "An  Historical,  Geographical,  Commercial  and  Philosophical 
View  of  the  American  United  States,"  by  W.  Winterbotham,  London, 
1795,  four  volumes. 

In  the  same  words  "Guthrie's  Geography,"  first  American  edition, 
Philadelphia,  1794-5,  with  the  addition  of  "and  about  2,000  inhabitants." 
Both  say,  "The  inhabitants  have  lately  erected  a  handsome  court- 
house, 100  feet  by  50,  with  a  semi-hexagon  at  each  end,  over  which 
is  a  balustrade." 

Also  in  "Nathaniel  Dwight's  Geography,"  Hartford,  1795.  "Q.  What 
is  the  capital  of  New  Jersey?  A.  Trenton;  it  is  the  largest  town  in 
the  State,  though  it  does  not  contain  more  than  200  houses." 

In  Goldsmith's  "Easy  Grammar  of  Geography,"  Philadelphia,  181 1: 
"Trenton,  which  is  the  seat  of  justice,  contains  but  about  2,000  in- 
habitants." 

5.  There  was  a  Sir  John  St.  Clair  in  Braddock's  army,  who  arrived  in 
January,  1755 ;  was  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  22d  Regiment,  and 
Deputy  Quartermaster-General  for  all  the  forces  in  America.  In  1762 
he  was  made  a  full  Colonel.  On  the  list  of  the  wounded  at  the  defeat 
(July  9,  1755)  he  was  put  down  as  "Sir  John  Sinclair,  Baronet,  Dep. 
Q.  M.  Gen."  (Winthrop  Sargent's  History  of  Braddock's  Expedition; 
Pennsylvania  Historical  Society,  pp.  136,  143,  285.)  The  death  of 
"Hon.  Col.  Sir  John  St.  Clair,  Bar't,"  is  announced  in  the  newspapers 
of  the  day  as  having  taken  place  at  Elizabethtown,  December,  1767. 
There  was  a  "Captain  Rutherford"  with  St.  Clair  in  the  Expedition. 
From  some  references  and  correspondence,  it  would  appear  that  Sir 
John  was  a  petulant  officer.  See  "Letters  and  Papers  relating  to  the 
Provincial  History  of  Pennsylvania,"  principally  from  papers  of  the 
Shippen  family,  privately  printed.  Philadelphia:  pp.  36-8,  61,  151.  In 
one  letter  Sir  John  speaks  of  "Betsey — I  mean,  Lady  St.   Clair." 

W.  A.  Whitehead  (Newark,  July  7,  1859)  writes  about  "a  letter 
which  I  found  among  some  MSS.  added  to  my  collection  a  few  days 
ago."  "The  letter  is  dated  at  'Belville,'  Sept.  16,  1765,  but  references 
in  the  letter  indicate  a  location  near  Trenton,  its  purport  being  that 
a  certain  old  woman  had,  in  his  absence,  intruded  herself  into  his 
Greenhouse,  where  Lady  St.  Clair  'lay  in'  and  was  then  confined  to 
her  bed ;  and  afterwards  went  to  his  dwelling-house  and  stole  'four 
pair  of  Lady  St.  Clair's  silk  stockings,'  and  two  silver  spoons,  but 
although  caught,  the  Justice  before  whom  she  was  taken  allowed  her 
to  go  off,  ordering  'a  constable  to  see  the  thief  over  Trenton  Bridge.' 
The  letter  is  addressed  to  Cortlandt  Skinner,  the  Attorney-General, 
and  he  threatens  to  "look  out  for  another  place  of  abode  'if  the 
Justices  are  not  restrained  from  conniving  at  robberies,'  signing  himself 
'John  Sinclair.'  " 


APPENDIX.  309 

The  "Historical  Magazine"  of  May,  1862,  says :  "Sir  John  St.  Clair, 
baronet,  was  from  Argyleshire.  He  had  been  Lieutenant-Colonel  of 
the  22d  Foot,  then  appointed  Deputy  Quartermaster-General  of  this  ex- 
pedition (battle  of  Monongahela,  July,  1755)  with  the  rank  of  Colonel 
in  America  only.  In  this  defeat  he  was  shot  through  the  chest.  On 
January  6,  1756,  he  was  commissioned  Lieutenant-Colonel  of  the  3d 
Battalion,  Royal  American  or  60th  Foot,  and  served  with  his  regiment 
until  the  peace  of  1763,  when  the  3d  and  4th  BattaHons  were  disbanded, 
and  he  retired  on  half-pay,  having  been  previously  made  Colonel  in 
the  army  (February  19,  1762).  He  died  towards  the  end  of  1767,  at 
Elizabethtown,  New  York  (sic),  according  to  the  Gentleman's  Maga- 
zine." 

Concerning  the  baronetcy,  "Chambers'  Miscellany,"  vol.  6,  p.  2, 
(Stirling  case),  says:  "To  induce  British  subjects,  especially  Scots- 
men of  rank,  to  take  land  in  the  district,  the  new  dignity  of  baronets 
of  Nova  Scotia  was  created.  It  was  to  be  conferred  on  acceptable 
persons  who  paid  for  and  received  a  grant  of  10,000  acres  of  land  in 
the  colony." 

"Maritime  Provinces,"  Boston,  1875,  p.  76,  also  says:  "The  order 
of  the  baronets  of  Nova  Scotia  was  founded  by  King  Charles  I.  in 
1625,  and  consisted  of  150  well-born  gentlemen  of  Scotland,  who  re- 
ceived with,  their  titles  and  insignia  presents  of  18  square  miles  each, 
in  the  wild  domains  of  Acadia.  These  manors  were  to  be  settled  by 
the  baronets  at  their  own  expense,  and  were  expected  to  yield  hand- 
some revenues.     But  little  was  ever  accomplished  by  this  order." 

Hills'  "History  of  Episcopal  Church  in  Burlington,"  p.  273,  "March 
17,  1762,  Sir  John  St.  Clair,  baronet,  and  Elizabeth  Moreland,  married 
in  Burlington  by  Rev.  Cohn,  Campbell." 

"I  wrote  him  (Dr.  Johnson)  one  letter  to  introduce  Mr.  Sinclair 
(now  Sir  John),  the  member  for  Caithness,  to  his  acquaintance." 
Boswell,  A.  D.  1782. 

From  a  Boston  paper,  1768:  "Philadelphia,  Dec.  7,  1767. — On  Wed- 
nesday, the  23d  November,  at  his  home  in  Elizabethtown,  New  Jersey, 
died  Sir  John  St.  Clair,  baronet.  Colonel  of  His  Majesty's  Regiment, 
and  Quartermaster-General  of  the  Army  in  North  America,  in  which 
station  he  has  acted  for  13  years  with  great  honour  and  integrity. 
His  death  was  occasioned  by  a  wound  he  received  through  the  lungs, 
on  the  banks  of  the  Monongahela,  in  July,  1755,  at  Braddock's  un- 
fortunate defeat,  of  which  wound  he  never  recovered.  He  was  be- 
tween 50  and  60  years  of  age,  and  has  been  near  40  years  in  His 
Majesty's  service.  He  acted  on  all  occasions  with  a  firmness  of  spirit, 
resignation  and  dignity  becoming  his  profession  and  character.  His 
remains  were  interred  on  Saturday,  the  26th,  with  all  military  honours. 
His  Excellency,  General  Gage,  accompanied  by  the  gentlemen  of  his 
suite  from  headquarters,  and  the  officers  from  the  adjacent  garrisons 
in  New  York  and  New  Jersey  attended  the  solemnity. 


310  APPENDIX. 

"His  only  son,  now  Sir  John  St.  Clair,  succeeds  to  his  title  and 
estates." 

6.  In  the  first  edition  (1708)  of  Oldmixon's  British  Empire  in  Amer- 
ica, it  is  said  there  are  "but  two  Church  of  England  ministers  in  both 
the  Provinces"  of  East  and  West  New  Jersey. 

The  most  comprehensive  account  of  the  denominations  existing  in 
the  middle  of  the  century,  which  I  have  seen,  is  in  "A  digression  con- 
cerning the  various  sectaries  in  religion,  in  the  British  settlements  of 
North  America,"  contained  in  Dr.  Douglass'  "Summary,  Historical 
and  PoHtical."     Boston,   1753,  vol.  ii.,  pp.   1 12-157. 

7.  In  a  map  in  Humphreys'  Historical  Account  of  the  Gospel  Propa- 
gation Society,  1730,  I  find  the  following  topography: 

°  Hopewell, 
°  Maidenhead, 
°  Burlington. 
If  this  was  the  understanding  in  1705,  the  Hopewell  of  the  manu- 
script could  not  be  so  near  Trenton  as  the  "Old  Church." 

8.  In  1732  "the  inhabitants  of  Amwell  and  Hopewell"  applied  to  the 
Society  for  a  Missionary.  In  1739,  Colonel  Daniel  Coxe  made  his  will, 
devising  one  hundred  acres  in  Maidenhead,  "known  as  the  town-lot, 
for  the  use  of  an  Episcopal  Church  erected,  or  to  be  hereafter  erected, 
in  the  township  of  Maidenhead."  The  minutes  of  St.  Michael's  Vestry, 
of  I775>  mention  "the  glebe  of  Maidenhead." 

9.  Joseph  Peace  owned  land  near  the  barracks.  He  was  the  father 
of  Mrs.  Sarah  Chubb,  from  whom  the  lot  was  purchased  under  the 
law  of  1758.  It  consisted  of  one  acre,  and  was  part  of  a  tract  of  36 
acres,  purchased  by  Peace  from  James  Trent,  in  1732,  for  170  pounds 
in  silver  money. 

10.  November  i,  1861,  I  saw  in  the  Post  Office  Department  at  Wash- 
ington, the  thin  little  folio  which  includes  the  entire  account  current 
or  ledger,  of  Dr.  Franklin,  while  Postmaster  General.  In  it  is  the  ac- 
count of  "The  Post  Office  at  Trenton,"  which  places  the  revenue  of 
the  office  in  1776  at  £10.  16.  11.  See  the  account  given  at  large  in 
"Proceedings  of  the  New  Jersey  Historical  Society."  1862,  vol.  9,  pp. 
83-85. 

11.  April  5,  1744.  Dr.  Franklin  mentions  "Mr.  John  Coxe,  of  Tren- 
ton, and  Mr.  Martyn,  of  the  same  place,"  among  the  first  members  of  a 
Philosophical  Society  in  Philadelphia.  Sparks'  "Life  of  Franklin," 
vi :  29. 

12.  Wm.  Morris  and  Richard  Salter  were  Justices  of  the  Peace  at 
Trenton.  Gov.  Belcher  (Dec,  1755)  disapproved  of  their  course  in 
committing  a  number  of  Susquehannah  and  Delaware  Indians  to  jail, 
as  they  belonged  to  Pennsylvania.    An.  Index,  p.  330.     See  also  p.  280. 


APPENDIX.  311 

Nov.  2.  Saltar  was  the  name  of  the  Treasurer  of  the  State  who,  in 
October,  1803,  was  seized  in  his  house  in  Trenton,  and  robbed  of  the 
public  funds  to  the  amount  of  eleven  thousand  dollars. 

13.  April  5,  1757,  is  the  date  of  a  letter  of  Dr.  Franklin  in  Trenton, 
on  his  way  from  Philadelphia  to  New  York,  to  take  passage  for  Eng- 
land. "My  kind  friend  Mr.  Griffith's  carriage  being  too  weak  in  the 
wheels,  I  have  accepted  Mr.  Master's  obliging  offer  and  take  his  car- 
riage forward  from  this  place,  and  he  will  return  to  town  in  Mr.  Grif- 
fith's. About  a  dozen  of  our  friends  accompanied  us  quite  hither  to 
see  us  out  of  the  province,  and  we  spent  a  very  agreeable  evening  to- 
gether."    Sparks'  "Franklin,"  vii :  131. 


312  APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

1.  Dr.  Green,  in  his  "Notes,"  overlooked  the  pastor  of  Trenton  and 
the  Rev.  Mr.  Guild,  when  he  wrote :  "In  the  Province  of  New  Jersey- 
it  is  not  known  that  there  was  a  single  clergyman  who  belonged  to  the 
Synod  of  Philadelphia."     (Discourses  and  Notes,  p.  281-2.) 

2.  This  motto  of  the  House  of  Somers  was  adopted,  probably  from 
the  Governor's  answer,  by  the  Cliosophic  Society  of  the  College,  in- 
stituted in  1765.  It  was  the  theme  of  the  striking  oration  before  the 
rival  societies,  by  the  Rev.  Baynard  R.  Hall,  D.D.,  in  the  commence- 
ment week  of  1852. 

3.  There  is  a  particular  report  of  the  first  commencement  in  the  Penn- 
sylvania Gazette,  for  December  13,  1748. 

4.  I  have  seen  (I  suppose  now  in  the  State  House  Archives)  a  Peti- 
tion of  the  Trustees  of  Princeton  College,  dated  May  23,  1753,  signed 
Caleb  Smith,  to  the  House  of  General  Assembly  at  Burlington,  asking 
for  permission  to  open  a  lottery  for  the  benefit  of  the  college. 

Also,  an  application  of  the  "Trustees  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey 
ai  Newark,"  to  the  Assembly  at  Perth  Amboy,  November  9,  1748,  for 
"assistance  toward  defraying  the  necessary  charges  of  it."  Mr.  Cowell, 
John  Pierson,  Tim.  Johnes  and  Thos.  Arthur  were  the  committee  of 
the  Trustees  to  wait  upon  the  Assembly,  but  the  petition  is  signed  only 
by  the  last  three. 

5.  The  interesting  and  valuable  journal  of  Davies,  from  1753  to  1755, 
is  given  entire  in  Dr.  Foote's  Sketches  of  Virginia,  first  series,  chap, 
xii.  It  adds  to  my  personal  interest  in  this  part  of  the  history,  to  find 
that  it  was  possibly  my  ancestor,  Matthew  Clarkson,  of  Philadelphia, 
whom  Davies  mentions  as  a  fellow-passenger  to  London,  and  certainly 
it  was  the  great-grandfather  of  my  great-grandfather,  who  is  referred 
to  in  Davies'  journal  of  January  27,  1754,  when  having  preached  in 
Berry  street,  Davies  says :  "When  I  entered  the  pulpit  it  filled  me  with 
reverence  to  reflect  that  I  stood  in  the  place  where  Mr.  Clarkson,  Dr. 
Owen,  Dr.  Watts,  and  others  had  once  officiated." 

6.  I  have  the  original  of  the  following: 

"Rev'd  Sir,  "Bordentown,  December,  '55. 

I  intended  to  have  seen  you  in  my  way  to  Philadelphia,  but  the 
business  I  am  upon  naturally  led  me  to  Freehold,  Allenton,  &c.,  and 
now  to  go  by  Trenton  would  be  too  much  out  of  the  way.  I  have  used 
and  dispersed  these  pages  (like  the  enclosed)  in  the  best  manner  I 
could,  and  am  still  prosecuting  the  design.     You  will  please  to  accept 


APPENDIX.  313 

of  this,  and  use  it  as  your  wisdom  and  sincere  concern  for  the  good  of 
the  college  shall  direct.  I  hope  to  see  you  in  my  return,  which  per- 
haps may  be  some  time  next  month,  and  conclude  for  the  present  with 
subscribing  myself, 

Rev'd   Sir, 

Your  humble  serv't, 

John  Brainerd. 
To  the  Rev'd  Mr.  Cowell." 

Addressed  "To  the  Rev'd  Mr.  David  Cowell,  at  Trenton — per  Mr. 
Jas.  Bell." 

On  the  back  is  this  memorandum: 

"Feb.  16,  1756,  Rec'd  of  Jno.  Wellin  for  Princeton  subscn.  2-10." 

7.  "The  Treasurer  was  directed  to  pay  the  Rev.  David  Cowell,  for 
his  inspection  of  the  College  from  the  14th  of  December  to  the  time 
of  President  Edward's  arrival  in  Princeton  the  sum  of  eleven  pounds.' 
Maclean's  "History  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,"  i :  174. 


314 


APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


1.  Mr.  Cowell  bequeathed  fifty  pounds  to  the  College. 

2.  In  August,  1874,  the  congregation  placed  a  marble  monument  on 
his  grave,  inscribed : 

"Rev.  David  Cowell, 

First  Pastor  of  this  Church, 

1736 — 1760. 

Born  near  Boston,   Dec'r   12,    1704; 

Died  in  Trenton,  Dec'r  i,  1760." 

(The  old  headstone  still  remains.) 

3.  Something  more  might  be  made  out  of  this  "memorandum" 
(which  is  in  our  archives)  by  a  deciphering  of  the  shorthand. 

4.  I  have  a  leaf  of  notes  on  the  text  "Death — is  yours,"  with  six 
heads,  twenty-eight  sub-hea(^s  and  two  applications,  marked  "Sept. 
7,   1740,  Maidenhead,  Thos.  Moore's  wife's  burying." 

5.  In  the  church-yard  is  the  headstone  of  John  Dagworthy,  Esq.,  died 
Sept.  4,  1756,  aged  70  years. 

6.  Total,  260;  not  equal  to  Mrs.  Honeywood,  noticed  by  Fuller,  who 
had  at  her  decease  (living?)  367  descendants;  nor  to  Dame  Hester 
Temple,  who  lived  to  see  700.  (Cited  in  Southey's  "Life  of  Cowper," 
chap.  17.) 

August  2,  1868,  Janet  Davis,  widow,  died  in  Trenton,  who  was  96 
years  old  the  previous  June.  She  was  admitted  to  her  first  communion 
in  Paisley,  Scotland,  when  she  was  16,  and  had,  therefore,  been  80 
years  in  communion.     She  was  received  to  the  Trenton  Church  in  1819. 

7.  For  more  about  Armitage,  see  Hale's  "History,"  pp.  18-24. 

8.  Benjamin  Yard  has  a  "plateing  forge  at  west  end  of  Trenton,  and 
furnace  for  making  steel,"  Governor  Belcher,  1750,  in  "New  Jersey 
Archives,"  vii :  558,  560. 

9.  I  had  a  letter  from  David  Cowell,  July  14,  1782,  Trenton,  to 
"Benjamin  Cornwill,  near  Penny-Town,"  which  I  sent  to  Wm.  W. 
Cowell,  Wrentham,  Mass.  He  says,  "I  talked  with  Jacob  Blackwell 
about  your  affair,  and  assured  him  that  you  are  willing  to  have  your 
money  matters  settled  by  the  Table."     (See  p.  291.) 

I  also  sent  to  W.  W.  Cowell  (Nov.  1871)  four  small  sheets  of  notes 
of  sermons  by  Rev.  David  Cowell,  preached  1738-1746. 

10.  A  letter  of  Dr.  Franklin,  April  5,  1744,  mentions  among  the 
members    of    a    Philosophical    Society    in    Philadelphia,    "Mr.    Morris, 


APPENDIX.  315 

Chief  Justice  of  the  Jerseys ;    Mr.  Home,   Secretary  of  do."     Sparks' 
"Life  of  Franklin,"  vi.,  29. 

11.  It  has  been  suggested  to  me  by  Rev.  John  Miller,  May,  1874, 
that  the  difficulty  about  Sir  John's  being  in  Trenton  may  be  removed 
by  supposing  the  meaning  of  the  sentence  on  page  91,  to  be  given  by 
putting  "and  brother  to  the  celebrated  Sir  John  Hume"  in  parenthesis. 

12.  A  letter  from  William  Nelson,  Esq.,  Secretary  of  the  New  Jer- 
sey Historical  Society,  July  22,  1890,  says:  "I  have  just  received  from 
a  London  bookseller  a  handsome  quarto  volume  in  manuscript,  con- 
taining about  150  pages  of  Poems  of  Archibald  Home,  late  Secretary 
of  His  Majesty's  Province  of  New  Jersey.  It  has  evidently  been 
copied  with  the  greatest  care;  I  should  judge  by  a  professional  pen- 
man, for  some  devoted  friend  of  Mr.  Hume,  and  evidently  about  the 
time  of  his  death,  in  1744." 


3i6 


APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


1.  In  Cooley's  "Genealogy  of  Early  Settlers  of  Trenton  and  Ewing," 
Trenton,  1883,  p.  39,  it  is  said  that  "Mr.  Clark  bought  and  lived  till 
his  death  on  the  night  of  the  battle  of  Trenton,  December  26,  1776,  on 
the  place  near  the  church,  now  owned  and  occupied  by  Edward  Ship- 
pen  Mcllvaine.  He  was  in  a  room  whose  floor  was  covered  with 
weary,  worn  and  sleeping  soldiers.  He  was  supposed  to  have  been 
in  the  act  of  hanging  his  watch  over  the  mantel  when  he  fell  into 
the  open  fire,  and  there  burned  to  death.  His  condition  was  first  dis- 
covered by  a  negro  servant.     He  died  aged  88. 

2.  May  15,  1872,  I  officiated  at  the  funeral  of  Joseph  Yard,  great- 
grandson  of  this  Joseph  (the  same,  I  suppose,  as  on  pp.  54,  55,  68,  etc.). 
At  this  time  were  Hving  two  of  his  brothers,  Jethro  and  Archibald 
William  (see  this  name,  p.  143).  May  29,  1874,  I  attended  the  funeral 
of  Jethro,  and  May  26,  1880,  that  of  Archibald  William. 

3.  It  may  now  be  added  that  Mr.  Benjamin  Fish  Chambers,  named 
here  as  "the  present  Clerk  of  the  Board"  of  Trustees,  died  August  22, 
1885.  John  Chambers  (elder  1760-1764)  was  brother  of  the  grandfather 
of  the  present  Robert  Chambers  of  our  church  (1859).  "The  Robert 
Chambers  family"  pedigree  is  given  in  Cooley's  "Genealogy,"  p.  29-34- 


APPENDIX.  317 


CHAPTER  IX. 

1.  In  several  of  the  manuscript  sermons  of  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  which 
I  have  seen,  the  texts  (sometimes  several  verses)  are  written  in 
Greek,  an  indication  that  his  college  studies  were  not  useless. 

2.  Preface  to  Sermons.  Rev.  Wm.  Tennent,  of  Freehold,  wrote  an 
account  of  the  state  of  things  to  Dr.  Finley,  which  is  printed  in  Dr. 
Alexander's  "Log  College,"  pp.  367-9.  In  that  letter  he  mentions  that 
both  of  his  sons,  John  and  William,  were  partakers  "of  the  shower  of 
blessing." 

3.  His  name  is  written  Killpatrick  in  the  earlier  minutes. 

4.  Presbyteries  would  act  for  Sessions,  too.  Thus  in  October,  1756,  a 
request  was  presented  by  Jacob  Reeder,  a  member  of  Hopewell  and 
Maidenhead  congregations,  "that  for  the  sake  of  the  conveniency  of  his 
family,  the  Presbytery  would  please  to  dismiss  him  from  the  aforesaid 
congregation  (which  yet  he  professed  a  regard  to),  that  he  may  join 
with  Amwell;  and  the  Presbytery  taking  into  consideration  said  re- 
quest, judge  it  to  be  reasonable,  and  grant  it." 

5.  A  second  exegesis  used  to  be  required  of  candidates,  besides  the 
one  given  for  licensure.  The  Minutes  of  the  Presbytery  of  New  Bruns- 
wick for  October,  1761,  providing  trials  for  certain  licentiates  in  view 
of  ordination,  state  "that  these  three  young  gentlemen  represented  to 
the  Presbytery  their  great  fatigue  and  continued  hurry  in  riding  from 
place  to  place,  and  begged  to  be  excused  from  making  exegeses,  as 
usual  before  ordination,  and  these  their  requests  were  granted."  In 
the  last  century  a  branch  of  trial  was  sometimes  introduced  which 
would  scarcely  be  considered  reverent  now.  In  the  licensure  of  Charles 
Tennent,  by  the  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia  in  1736,  record  is  made  of 
"a  previous  test  of  his  ability  in  prayer."  The  examinations  on  scholar- 
ship were  more  specific  than  with  us ;  for  example,  Latta  and  Ander- 
son, at  one  sederunt,  were  examined  on  "Logic,  Pneumatics,  and 
Ontology."     (Second  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia,  1765.) 

6.  I  have  seen  a  letter  from  the  Rev.  David  Bostwick,  New  York, 
November  3,  1760,  "to  the  Rev.  Wm.  Kirkpatrick,  chaplain  to  the  Jer- 
sey Regiment  at  Albany."  In  it  he  says,  "Being  just  now  informed 
that  the  people  of  Elizabethtown  are  about  to  apply  to  you  as  a  candi- 
date for  settlement  in  the  ministry  since  the  dismission  of  Mr. 
Kettletas,  I  should  rejoice  to  see  them  so  happily  supplied,"  but  goes  on 
to  request  him  to  engage  nowhere  till  he   (Mr.  B.)   sees  him.     "There 


3i8  APPENDIX. 

are  certain  reasons  for  this  which  I  do  not  choose  now  to  mention. 
Only,  I  will  request  the  favour  of  you  to  come  to  New  York  as  soon 
as  you  can.  I  depend  on  preaching  a  few  sermons  here.  I  rejoice 
to  hear  that  God  has  preserved  your  Hfe  and  health  through  the  diffi- 
culties and  dangers  of  a  campaign." 

There  is  in  the  papers  shown  me  by  Mr.  Kirkpatrick's  grandson 
(Donald  Kirkpatrick,  of  Syracuse,  N.  Y.),  an  unfinished  letter  or 
draught  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  dated  Montreal,  September  lO, 
1760,  as  follows   (no  address)  : 

"Dear  Sir: 

"I  received  your  kind  letter  of  the  13th  of  July  per  post,  for  which 
I  heartily  thank  you.  In  return  for  it  I  have  the  pleasure  of  informing 
you  of  the  reduction  of  Montreal  and  of  all  Canada  to  the  obedience 
and  subjection  of  his  Britannic  Majesty,  which  happened  on  the  8th 
inst.  You  will,  sir,  no  doubt  have  accounts  from  the  public  prints 
of  this  affair  better  than  I  can  give,  and  perhaps  before  this  comes  to 
hand;  yet  it  may  not  be  disagreeable  to  have  something  from  the 
hand  of  your  friends. 

"I  gave  my  dear,  good  friend,  Mr.  McWhorter,  an  account  of  the 
reduction  of  Fort  Levy  on  He  Royale,  which  very  probably  he  has 
communicated  to  you,  as  I  may  desire  you  to  do  this  to  him,  for  'tis 
very  seldom  I  am  able  to  command  so  much  time  as  to  write  to  you 
both  at  the  same  time,  having  engaged  correspondence  with  so  many. 

"On  the  30th  of  August  our  army  decamped  from  the  He  Royale 
and  embarked  in  their  batteaux,  proceeding  down  the  river  towards 
Montreal  having  left  about  300  men  to  garrison  that  fort.  The  diffi- 
culty of  the  Rapids,  together  with  bad  weather  that  we  met  with, 
detained  us  four  days  before  we  came  to  the  inhabited  country  of  our 
enemy.  On  the  5th  of  September  our  whole  army  were  collected  to- 
gether on  He  Perro  (Perreau?)  about  twenty  miles  above  Montreal. 
The  inhabitants  of  that  island  had  left  their  houses,  and  many  of  them 
retired  into  the  woods,  and  in  the  evening  great  numbers  came  and 
took  the  oath  of  fidelity,  and  had  liberty  to  return  to  their  habitations. 

"On  the  morning  of  the  6th  our  army  re-embarked  for  Montreal, 
being  distant  from  the  upper  end  of  the  island  about  five  or  six  miles. 
We  knew  not  in  what  shape  we  should  find  our  enemy,  whether  on 
the  shore  to  dispute  our  landing,  or  in  ambuscade  to  surprise  us,  or 
entrenched,  or  in  the  field,  or  in  the  city." 

7.  I  am  told  that  it  is  stated  in  "Clark's  History  of  Onondaga",  that 
Mr.  Kirkland  was  induced  to  settle  among  the  Oneida  Indians  by  the 
influence  of  Rev.  W.  Kirkpatrick  and  Mr.  Wheelock.  "Trenton,  June 
21,  1761,"  is  the  date  of  a  letter,  from  John  Brainerd  to  the  Rev.  Enoch 
Green,  written  "in  a  minute  or  two,  as  I  passed  through  town" — 
printed  in  the  Presbyterian  Magazine,  October,  1852. 


1 


APPENDIX.  319 

8.  I  have  seen  in  MS.  "A  state  of  the  accounts  between  the  Rev. 
W.  K.,  deceased,  and  the  cong'n  of  Trenton,  from  December  I,  1761, 
to  May,  1766,"  "containing  three  years  before  his  dismission  and  one 
year  and  five  months  after  it." 

9.  I  have  seen  a  considerable  number  of  Mr.  Kirkpatrick's  manu- 
script sermons,  dated  from  1760  to  1768.  Among  them  is  one  marked 
"Pennington,  October  15,  1764,"  and  "Bedminster,  September  20,  1766." 
At  one  or  both  of  these  places  the  sermon  was  applied  to  rousing  the 
congregation  to  the  duty  of  rebuilding  their  church.  He  was  requested 
to  preach  on  the  day  appointed  to  open  a  subscription,  or  as  he  says, 
"to  be  your  monitor."  "It  is  a  standing  reproach  to  you  to  live  in 
houses  lined  with  cedar,  and  that  the  house  of  God  not  only  lacks 
every  decent  ornament,  but  be  inferior  even  to  your  barns  for  your 
grain  and  houses  for  your  cattle." 

Another  is  marked  "Pennington,  March  16,  1766,  preached  on  occa- 
sion of  the  funeral  of  Mr.  Elijah  Hunt"  (possibly  Hart).  In  it  he 
says,  "Not  long  since  we  were  called  together  in  this  place  to  pay  the 
last  tribute  to  the  memory  of  a  dearly  beloved  sister,  Mrs.  Guild." 

In  this  year  also  he  preached  at  the  dedication  of  the  second  church 
edifice  of  the  Hopewell   (Pennington)   congregation. 

The  list  of  sermons  and  dates  is  as  follows : 

1.  April  10,  1760.     "Tn.  O."     (Trenton  old.) 
March  21,  1761.     Trenton. 

Aug.  26,  1764.  Trenton. 

2.  Nov.  22,  1761.  Amwell,  July  17.     (No  year.) 

3.  Nov.  29,  1761.  Trenton. 
Oct.  16,  1763.  T.  O. 

July  10,  1769.  (This  sermon  was  also  marked  in  another  hand, 
"April,  '82,"  with  others  bearing  marks  of  having  been  used 
after  his  death.) 

4.  August  29,  1762. 
Feb.  12,  1769.    A.  O. 

5.  March  13,  1763.    Trenton. 

6.  May    15,    1763.     Trenton.      ("The   last    week   has   brought    us   the 

definitive  treaty  of  friendship  and  peace  concluded  by  the  prin- 
cipal contending  powers  in  Europe."     Text,  Ps.   110:2.) 

7.  July  17,  1763.    Trenton.    June  12,  1767.     A.  O. 

8.  Nov.  27,  1763. 

9.  Dec.  3,  1763.     ("At  the  baptism  of  John  Reeder."     No  place  men- 

tioned.) 
ID.  Sept.  2,  1764.    Trenton. 

Oct.  15,  1764.     Pennington. 
Ti.  Sept.  20,  1766.     Bedminster. 

12.  Sept.  8,  1765.    Trenton. 

13.  Nov.  17,  1765.    Trenton.    May  3,  1767.    A.  O.    July  3,  1768.    A.  N. 


320  APPENDIX. 

14.  Feb.  9,  1766.    Trenton. 

15.  March  16,  1766.     Pennington,  funeral  of  Elijah  Hunt. 

19.  Jan.  I,  1767.    Am.  N.  (Amwell  New?)     He  mentions  two  instances 

of   mortality   in  the   last  week,   Wm.    Pierson   and   Wm.   Ely, 
Junior. 

20.  Sept.  25,  1768.    "A.  M." 

21.  Aug.  25.    Date  of  year  obliterated,  but  it  was  on  the  death  of  Rev. 

Mr.   Treadwell,   rector   of  the   Episcopal   Church   of    Trenton,, 
who  was  settled  here  in  1763,  and  his  successor  in  1770. 

ID.  The  Convention  had  annual  sessions  alternately  in  New  Jersey 
and  Connecticut,  until  1776.     See  Minutes  by  Dr.  Field. 

11.  The  name  of  the  Rev.  Jacob  Kirkpatrick,  D.D.,  is  so  much 
identified  with  the  churches  of  Amwell,  where  he  is  now  [1858]  ac- 
tively passing  the  forty-eighth  year  of  his  pastorate,  that  it  will  meet 
a  natural  inquiry  to  state,  that  Dr.  Kirkpatrick  does  not  know  that  he 
has  any  family  connection  with  his  predecessor  and  namesake. 

On  June  20,  i860.  Dr.  Kirkpatrick  delivered  An  Historical  Discourse 
at  Amwell,  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  ministry  in  that  church. 
It  was  printed  by  order  of  the  Presbytery  of  Raritan,  by  Martien, 
Philadelphia.     Dr.  Kirkpatrick  died  in  May,  1886. 

12.  According  to  the  MS.  account  mentioned  at  p.  (183)  the  salary 
was  ";£ioo,  fire  wood,  hay  to  winter  a  horse,  per  annum."  The  town 
congregation  paid  two-thirds,  the  country  one-third.  The  account 
ends  with  a  balance  due  "to  the  time  of  his  dismission,  exclusive  of 
wood  and  hay,  ^123,  7.  i."  Add  "interest  from  May  i,  1766,  till  Feb. 
I,  1786,  exclusive  of  three  years  and  nine  months,  for  depreciating 
times,  containing  sixteen  years."     139.     2.     8. 

123.     7-     I- 


£262.     9.    9. 

"Proposed  to  the  Trustees  of  Trenton  as  due  on  the  three  years 
before  dismission."  "He  was  also  a  stated  supply  for  one  year  and 
five  months=ii4i,  13,  4."  "His  salary  was  as  before  by  order  and 
agreement." 

The  Committee  of  Presbytery  on  the  question  of  salary  due  (met 
Aug.  3,  1786)  were  Dr.  Witherspoon,  Edward  Bainbridge  and  John 
Miehelm  and  "upon  the  whole  are  of  the  opinion  that  no  suffi- 
cient ground  appears  to  suppose  that  there  are  any  arrears  due, 
from  the  Trenton  part  of  the  congregation,  before  the  time  of  Mr. 
Kirkpatrick's  dismission,  Dec.  i,  1764;  but  that  they  think  a  sum  not 
less  than  £27  of  arrears  at  that  time  was  due  from  the  country  con- 
gregation. They  are  also  of  the  opinion  that  for  the  year  and  five 
months  in  which  Mr.  Kirkpatrick  served  as  a  stated  supply  before 
his  removal  to  Amwell,  there  is  due  from  the  town  congregation  £84, 


APPENDIX.  321 

8,  10,  and  frorm  the  country  congregation  izT,  all  these  sums  exclusive 
of  interest,  which  seems  to  us  to  be  claimed  on  equitable  principles." 

In  a  will  made  by  Mrs.  Kirkpatrick  before  her  remarriage  (Nov.  7, 
1769),  she  mentions  "my  two  daughters,  Lettice  Charlton  and  Han- 
nah," "my  son,  William."  She  leaves  to  the  latter  "his  deceased 
father's  watch,  silver-plated  shoe  buckles,  silver  stock  buckle,  shirt 
buckle,  gold  sleeve  buttons."  Her  brother-in-laW;  James  Evans,  and 
friend,  Thomas  Charlton,  and  his  wife,  Lettice,  are  her  executors. 

William's  son,  Donald  Kirkpatrick  (grandson  of  our  pastor),  called 
to  see  me  in  August,  i860,  with  his  stepmother,  Mrs.  Hollister,  and 
went  *'o  Amwell  and  had  the  monuments  put  in  repair. 


22   PRES 


322 


APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER  X. 


1.  May  II,  1769^  Governor  Franklin  writes:  "Mr.  Reed,  our  Deputy- 
Secretary,  has,  I  understand,  let  his  house  in  Trenton  and  intends 
soon  for  England,  to  marry  De  Berdt's  daughter."  "Colonial  Docu- 
ments of  New  Jersey,"  x:  114. 

2.  The  commissioners  held  their  court  at  Trenton  from  November 
I2th  to  December  30th,  1782.  Their  decision,  which  was  in  favor  of 
Pennsylvania,  is  known  as  "the  Trenton  decree."  (HoUtster's  History 
of  the  Lackawanna  Valley,  p.  59.)  The  Commissioners  were  Wm. 
Whipple,  Welcome  Arnold,  David  Brearley,  William  C.  Houston  and 
Cyrus  Griffin.  The  Agents  for  Pennsylvania  were  Joseph  Reed,  Wm. 
Bradford,  James  Wilson  and  Jona.  D.  Sergeant.  Those  for  Con- 
necticut were  Eliphalet  Dyer,  Jesse  Root  and  Wm.  Samuel  Johnson. 
Henry  Osborne  was  Solicitor. 

3.  Imputations  upon  the  loyalty  of  Colonel  Reed  were  made  in  1782 
(supposed  to  proceed  from  Dr.  Rush),  and  repeated  by  Bancroft  in 
volume  IX  of  his  History.  This  gave  rise  to  a  controversy  between 
Bancroft  and  William  B.  Reed  in  1867.  William  S.  Stryker,  a  mem- 
ber of  this  church,  Adjutant-General  of  New  Jersey,  discovered  in 
1875-6  documents  which  clearly  show  that  the  person  actually  con- 
cerned in  the  original  charge  was  Col.  Charles  Read,  of  Burlington. 
Mr.  Bancroft  accepted  the  correction  and  published  it  in  the  centenary 
edition  of  his  History.  The  facts  are  given  in  a  pamphlet  published 
by  General  Stryker,  entitled  "The  Reed  Controversy.  Further  Facts 
with  Reference  to  the  Character  of  Joseph  Reed,  Adjutant-General 
on  the  Staff  of  General  Washington."  Printed  for  private  distribu- 
tion, Trenton,  1876. 

4.  When  the  news  of  the  battle  of  Lexington  (April  19,  1775)  was 
expressed  to  Philadelphia,  the  following  notes  were  made : 

Princetown,  Monday,  Apl  24  6  o'clock  and  forwd  to  Trenton 
Tho.  Wiggins    )  Com. 
Jon.  Baldwin      f  Members 
TrEnTon  Monday  Apl  24  9  o'clock  in  the  morng. 

Reed  the  above  pr  Express  and  forwarded  the  same  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  Philadelphia. 

Sam  Tucker  ") 
Isaac  Smith  J 
On  January  10,  1776,  the  New  Jersey  Committee  (Samuel  Tucker, 
President)  meeting  at  Princeton  complied  with  suggestions  of  the 
Continental  Congress  for  promoting  the  more  rapid  carrying  of  in- 
telligence of  public  events,  by  directing  "that  a  man  and  horse  be 
kept  in  constant  readiness  by  each  of  the  several  committees  of  New- 


APPENDIX.  323 

ark,  Elizabethtown,  Woodbridge,  New  Brunswick,  Princeton  and  Tren- 
ton, whose  business  shall  be  to  forward  all  expresses  to  and  from 
the  Continental  Congress ;  and  that  the  aforesaid  Town  Committees 
shall,  on  every  intelligence  of  any  invasion  or  alarm,  send  expresses 
to  the  neighboring  Town  Committees,  who  are  directed  to  provide  ex- 
presses to  forward  the  same  from  town  to  town."  "Minutes  of  Pro- 
vincial Congress,"  327,  328. 

Samuel  Tucker,  Abraham  Hunt,  Joseph  Ellis  and  Alexander  Cham- 
bers were  appointed,  October  28,  1775,  "Commissioners  for  the  West- 
ern Division"  of  the  Colony  to  receive  and  expend  money  for  arms 
and  subsistence  of  the  troops.  One  of  the  measures  for  obtaining 
ammunition  was  to  "collect  all  the  leaden  weights  from  windows  and 
clocks,  and  all  leaden  weights  of  shops,  stores  and  mills,  of  one  pound 
weight  and  upwards;  also  all  other  lead  in  and  about  houses  or  other 
places,"  paying  "at  the  rate  of  sixpence,  Proclamation  money,  the 
pound  weight."    "Minutes  of  Provincial  Congress,"  246,  417.  508. 

There  are  thirty-one  references  to  the  narhe  of  Samuel  Tucker  in 
the  index  of  the  Minutes.  A  sketch  of  his  career  and  that  of  John 
Hart,  is  given  in  the  "New  Jersey  Archives,"  vol.  x.,  269. 

5.  There  was  a  "Captain  Gould"  in  Trenton,  in  1725,  with  whom 
Thomas  Chalkley,  the  Quaker  minister,  lodged — "who  treated  me  very 
politely."  A  brook,  running  through  the  meadows,  near  the  old  ceme- 
tery where  the  Tuckers  were  buried,  is  called  Gould's  or  Gold's  run. 

6.  Mr.  Edwards,  on  the  20th  April,  1768,  was  appointed  to  supply  at 
AUentown  and  New  Brunswick  at  discretion ;  and  this  is  the  last  time 
his  name  appears  in  the  records  of  the  Presbytery.  He  did  not  accept 
the  Professorship,  and  on  January  5,  1769,  was  ordained  over  the  Con- 
gregational Church  of  White  Haven^  Conn.  It  may  be  doubted  whether 
his  coming  under  the  care  of  the  Presbytery  meant  more  than  asking  to 
be  employed  by  them  during  his  continuance  in  the  College ;  but  the 
Minute  of  April,  1767,  is,  "Being  desirous  to  be  taken  under  the  care  of 
this  Presbytery,  we  do  gladly  receive  him  according  to  his  desire."  In 
1807,  there  was  a  case  of  this  kind :  "Mr.  Enoch  Burt,  a  licentiate  of 
the  Southern  New  Hampshire  Association,  appeared  in  Presbytery,  and 
being  asked  whether  he  was  willing  to  accept  of  appointment  to  preach 
in  our  vacant  churches  the  ensuing  summer,  answered  in  the  affirma- 
tive. The  Committee  of  Supplies  was  directed  to  take  notice  of  the 
same." 


324 


APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


1.  From  Brainerd's  "Life  of  John  Brainerd,"  1865,  note  on  p.  127. 
"The  Rev.  Dr.  Hall,  in  his  'History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
Trenton,  New  Jersey,'  supposes  the  sister  Spencer  above  referred  to 
was  the  wife  of  General  Joseph  Spencer  of  the  Revolution.  This  is 
a  mistake.  Two  of  Brainerd's  sisters,  Jerusha  and  Martha,  married 
Spencers.  Jerusha  married  Samuel  Spencer,  of  East  Haddam. 
Martha  was  the  wife  of  the  General." 

In  the  "Proceedings  of  the  New  Jersey  Historical  Society,"  1886-7, 
is  preserved  "a  sketch  of  the  life  of  Col.  Oliver  Spencer,"  copied  from 
"The  Western  Spy."  He  was  a  son  of  Samuel,  who  was  brother  of 
Elihu  and  of  General  Spencer;  born  at  East  Haddam,  Connecticut, 
1736;  resided  for  some  years  at  EHzabethtown,  N.  J.,  then  removed 
to  the  Miami  country,  Ohio,  where  he  died  in  181 1. 

2.  In  the  first  edition  of  Edwards'  "Life  of  Brainerd,"  Boston,  1749, 
"Rev.  Elihu  Spencer"  is  on  the  list  of  subscribers  prefixed. 

3.  "The  Suffolk  Presbytery  on  June  14,  1758,  ordered  its  members 
in  succession  to  supply  Mr.  Spencer's  pulpit  during  his  absence  from 
his  people  as  'a  chaplain  in  the  army  the  present  campaign,'  and  the 
period  of  supplies  extends  from  the  third  Sabbath  in  June  until  the 
fourth  and  last  of  November."  Letter  of  Rev.  Epher  Whitaker,  clerk 
of  Long  Island  Presbytery,  October  10,  1883. 

4.  "The  Rev.  Elihu  Spencer  being  about  to  remove  from  Jamaica 
to  Shrewsbury,  we  (upon  his  request)  recommend  him  to  New  Bruns- 
wick Presbytery  as  one  of  good  standing  in  this  Presbytery."  "He 
was  united  to  Suffolk  Presbytery  by  order  of  Synod,  and  became 
enrolled  as  a  member  the  day  before  he  made  his  request  of  a  transfer 
to  the  New  Brunswick  Presbytery."  Minutes  of  Suffolk  Presbytery 
in  session  at  Old  Man's,  October  10,  1759.  (Long  Island  Presbytery  is 
successor  of   Suffolk   Presbytery.) 

5.  In  1803  Dr.  Macwhorter  published  in  Newark  two  volumes  of 
sermons.  In  the  list  of  subscribers  in  vol.  2,  is  a  large  number  from 
North  Carolina,  viz. :  from  Orange,  Mecklenburgh,  Center,  Thyatira, 
Lincoln,  Salisbury,  Salem,  Chapel  Hill,  Charlotte,  Caswell,  Halifax, 
Lewisburg,  Edington,  Coddle-Creek,  Rowan,  Cabarus ;  also  a  number 
in  South  Carolina. 

6.  The  Church  at  Hawfields  became  distinguished  in  the  religious 
history  of  North  Carolina,  in  the  end  of  the  last  century  and  the 
beginning  of  the  present,  by  the  efficient  ministries  of  its  successive 
pastors,  James  McGready  and  William  D.  Paisley.  The  latter  died  in 
Greensborough,  March,  1857,  in  his  87th  year.     "The  first  camp-meet- 


APPENDIX.  325 

ing  held  in  the  South  was  held  at  Hawfields,  in  October,  1802,  and 
grew  out  of  the  necessity  of  the  case."  "Fourth  Creek  Church  was 
organized  by  Mr.  Ehhu  Spencer,  and  embraced  the  inhabitants  between 
the  South  Yadkin  and  the  Catawba  rivers."  Foote's  North  Carolina, 
chap,  xvi.,  xxiv.,  where  will  also  be  found  a  history  of  the  churches 
of  the  Haw  and  Eno. 

7.  "It  is  probable  that  the  church  on  Steele  Creek  was  organized  by 
Messrs.  Spencer  and  Macwhorter."  Foote,  chap,  xxviii.  The  same 
is  said  of  Poplar  Tent.  Chap.  xxx.  It  was  called  Tent  from  the  tem- 
porary shelter  used  before  a  church  was  built.    lb. 

8.  "Apoquiminey  is  the  corporate  name  of  the  Forest  Church,  now 
called  Middletown.  It  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  old  church 
of  Apoquiminey  from  which  it  broke  off  in  the  great  revival,  and 
which  is  now  called  Drawyers."  MS.  letter  of  late  Rev.  Richard 
Webster,   1848. 

9.  May  30,  1766.  Mr.  Spencer,  as  Moderator,  signed  the  Synod's 
pastoral  letter  ordered  "to  be  dispersed  among  all  our  societies,"  call- 
ing upon  them  to  acknowledge  the  interposition  of  Providence  in 
leading  the  Parliament  to  repeal  the  Stamp  Act,  and  thus  probably 
preventing  a  civil  war  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country, 
"Records  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,"  p.  362. 

10.  "The  services  of  religion  have  been  observed  in  Pencader  for 
nearly  170  years  (1877),  and  conducted  by  eighteen  ministers  *  *  * 
Dafydd  Evans,  Thos.  Evans,  Timothy  Gryffydd,  Elihu  Spencer,  etc." 
"Pennsylvania  Historical  Society  Magazine,"  vol.  ii.,  p.  345. 

11.  "I  am  a  great-grandson  of  the  Rev.  Joseph  Montgomery,  who 
is  mentioned  on  pp.  135,  171.  My  mother,  now  in  her  eighty-seventh 
year,  is  the  daughter  of  John  Wright  and  Rose  Chambers,  the  latter 
a  daughter  of  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Trenton  and  member  of  the 
First  Church."  Letter  of  J.  H.  from  John  Montgomery  Forster, 
Insurance  Department  of  Pennsylvania,  Harrisburgh,  November  26, 
1877. 

[Note  by  John  S.  Chambers:  "Rose  Chambers,  daughter  of  Alex- 
ander Chambers  and  Rose  Craig,  married  John  Wright."] 

In  a  letter  to  John  S.  Chambers,  December  22,  1877,  Mr.  Forster 
says:  "Rev.  Joseph  Montgomery's  wife  was  the  daughter  of  Andrew 
Reed,  of  Trenton,  and  sister  of  General  Joseph  Read.  So  you  see  that 
my  ancestors  on  both  sides  of  the  house  were  from  Trenton,  and 
among  the  earliest  settlers  of  the  place.  We  (Forster  and  Chambers) 
both  stand  in  the  same  relation  to  Alexander  Chambers,  he  having^ 
been  our  great-grandfather."  See  "A  Sketch  of  the  Life  of  the  Rev. 
Joseph  Montgomery,  by  John  Montgomery  Forster,  Harrisburgh  (for 
private    distribution),    1879." 


326 


APPENDIX. 


Mr.  Montgomery's  second  wife  was  the  widow  of  Angus  Boyce  and 
sister  of  Dr.  Rush.     "Pennsylvania  Historical  Magazine,"  ii :  474. 

12.  In  the  "History  of  Eastern  Vermont,"  by  Benjamin  H.  Hall, 
New  York,  1858,  p.  700,  it  is  said  that  Micah  Townsend,  born  1749, 
■"entered  at  the  age  of  fourteen  the  College  of  Nassau  Hall,  in  Prince- 
ton, New  Jersey,  during  the  presidency  of  Dr.  Elihu  Spencer." 

At  the  commencement  of  1766  Mr.  Spencer  presided  and  conferred 
degrees  in  place  of  President  Finley,  then  dying  in  Philadelphia. 
See  Dr.  Green's  "Discourses  and  Notes  on  the  College  of  New  Jersey," 

p.  36s,  331. 

Dr.  Maclean's  "History,"  i :  265-6,  records  the  appointment  of  Mr. 
Spencer,  in  the  illness  of  President  Finley,  "to  preside  at  next  com- 
mencement and  confer  degrees."  After  Finley's  death  the  trustees 
presented  ten  pounds  to  Spencer  for  presiding  and  conferring  degrees 
at  commencement. 

The  same,  p.  314,  records  that  in  the  absence  of  Dr.  Witherspoon 
in  the  West  Indies,  Mr.  Spencer  was  appointed  to  act  as  Vice- 
President. 


APPENDIX.  327 


CHAPTER  XII. 

1.  The  name  of  SamuEi<  Hill  is  in  the  graveyard:  "Born  Septem- 
ber 14,  1716:  Died  May  5,  1785."  An  adjoining  stone  is  marked, 
"Smith  Hill:     Died  January  9,  1822,  aged  71  years." 

2.  The  paragraph  on  Ebenezer  Cowell  should  be  corrected  as  fol- 
lows : 

There  were  two  of  the  name  of  Ebenezer  Cowell.  The  signer  was 
born  December  7,  1716,  and  died  May  4,  1799.  His  children  were  David, 
Ebenezer  (born  1743),  Joseph,  Sarah  (Mrs.  Bowlsby),  Lois  and  Eunice 
(twins),  Robert,  John.  David  was  a  physician  and  died  in  1789  (see 
p.  177).  Ebenezer,  a  lawyer  in  Trenton,  died  unmarried.  John  suc- 
ceeded his  brother  David  in  the  practice  of  medicine  in  Trenton  (p. 
178).     The  lirst   Ebenezer  graduated   at   Princeton,   1766. 

The  father  of  our  first  pastor  was  Joseph  Cowell  (1673-1771). 
There  is  a  letter  written  by  him  to  his  son,  dated  Wrentham  (Mass.), 
April  29,  1752,  addressed  to  "The  Rev'd  Mr.  David  Cowell,  Pastor  of 
a  Church  of  Christ  in  Trenton,  New  Jersey." 

In  the  manuscript  collections  of  Mr.  John  M.  Cowell,  of  Philadel- 
phia, are  some  interesting  documents  in  relation  to  the  first  Ebenezer 
Cowell,  son  of  Joseph,  and  brother  of  the  pastor,  who  came  from 
Wrentham  to  Trenton  soon  after  1761.  He  was  a  gunsmith  at  Cam- 
bridge, Mass.,  for  more  than  twenty  years.  In  1770  he  was  deputy 
to  Daniel  Smith,  Surveyor-General  of  New  Jersey. 

The  inscription  on  a  stone  in  the  Trenton  church-yard,  closes  the 
history,  as  follows : 

"In  memory  of  Ebenezer  Cowell,  who  departed  this  life  May  4,  1799, 
aged  82  years : 

My  flesh  shall  slumber  in  the  ground 

Till  the  last  trumpet's  joyful  sound; 

Then  burst  the  chain  with  sweet  surprise 

And  in  my  Saviour's  image  rise." 

3.  A  deposition  of  Ralph  Smith,  May,  1750,  speaks  of  his  being  on 
a  certain  occasion  "At  the  house  of  Elijah  Bond  in  Trenton,  in  com- 
pany with  John  Coxe  and  Samuel  Nevel,  Esq.,  and  Mr.  Theophilus 
Severns."    "New  Jersey  Archives,"  vii.,  544. 

4.  Mrs.  Catherine  Beatty  died  in  Trenton,  January  27,  1861.  She 
was  born  April  19,  1773. 

5.  Dr.  Bryant  appears  to  have  belonged  to  the  house  represented  in 
our  day  by  the  celebrated  writer,  William  Cullen  Bryant.  In  his  life 
by  Mir.  Parke  Godwin,  the  Perth  Amboy  epitaph  is  quoted  as  that  of 
"a  son  of  Stephen  Bryant  and  brother  of  Ichabod."    Vol.  i.,  p.  51. 


328  APPENDIX. 

In  the  Pennsylvania  Historical  Society's  Magazine,  vol.  v.,  is  a 
journal  of  Miss  Eve,  1772-3.  Under  date  of  November  2,  1773,  she 
recorded  a  visit  in  Philadelphia  to  "a  lady  from  Trent  Town,  who 
lodged  at  Dr.  Duffel's"  (DufHeld).  "Her  name  is  Brayen;  her  hus- 
band is  a  doctor  and  a  man  of  fortune."  One  who  took  a  name  from 
the  sound  only  might  easily  write  Brayen  for  Bryant. 

6.  "David  Pinkerton,  of  Trenton,"  was  a  Commissioner  for  the 
Western  Division,  in  1776.  "Minutes  of  Provincial  Congress,"  pp. 
459,  508. 

7.  In  1732  Joseph  Warrell,  Esq.,  was  recommended  to  the  Duke  of 
Newcastle  by  Governor  Cosby  as  "one  who  was  so  well  recommended 
to  me  by  Lord  Malpas  before  I  left  England  that  there  is  little  more 
for  me  to  say  in  his  behalf  than  that  since  my  acquaintance  with  him 
his  behaviour  has,  in  every  particular,  confirmed  the  character  given 
by  his  lordship,  and  one  whom  I  can  presume  to  answer  for  to  your 
Grace." 

"New  Jersey  Archives,"  v.,  324. 

In  1751  Joseph  Warrell,  as  "His  Majesty's  Attorney- General  for  the 
Province  of  New  Jersey  in  America,  and  Notary  and  Tabellion  Pub- 
lick,  dwelling  at  Belleville,  near  Trenton,  in  the  county  of  Hunterdon," 
gives  a  certificate  in  favour  of  the  character  of  Samuel  Tucker,  Jr., 
"of  Trenton,  merchant;  that  I  have  known  him  from  a  child,  and  since 
he  has  grown  up  to  man's  estate  (upwards  of  ten  years),  all  which 
time  he  has  been  my  neighbour." 

"Archives,"  vii.,  639. 

In  1848,  Mr.  Warrell,  as  Attorney-General,  attested  the  legality  of 
Governor  Belcher's  charter  of  the  College. 

In  the  "Pennsylvania  Historical  Society's  Magazine,"  1883,  p.  456, 
is  a  "journal  of  a  campaign  from  Philadelphia  to  Paulus  Hook  in 
August,  1776,"  by  Shallop.  At  Bristol  some  of  the  travelers  took  to 
land  for  the  rest  of  the  journey.  Arriving  at  Trenton,  they  took  their 
provisions  "to  a  church-yard  at  the  upper  end  of  Trenton,  where  we 
cooked  them."  "After  dining,  all  who  kept  journals  got  journalizing  on 
a  tombstone  erected  to  the  memory  of  Joseph  Warrell,  and  inscribed 
with  the  following  inscription" — copying  inaccurately  the  epitaph  on 
p.  145  of  this  "History." 

8.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Provincial  Congress  in  Trenton,  July  5,  1776: 
"Isaac  DeCou,  Esquire,  having  resigned  his  commission  as   Second 

Major  of  the  First  Regiment  of  foot  militia  in  the  county  of  Hun- 
terdon, whereof  Isaac  Smith,  Esq.,  is  Colonel,  ordered  that  his  resig- 
nation be  accepted."     "Minutes  of  Provincial  Congress,"  492. 

9.  Mr.  Thomas  Y.  How  was  deposed  from  the  ministry  of  the  Epis- 
copal Church.  His  wife,  Elizabeth,  died  in  New  Brunswick,  July  28, 
181 1,  and  was  buried  in  the  First  Presbyterian  church-yard  in  Trenton,, 


APPENDIX.  329 

but  I  have  not  been  able  to  discover  through  what  connection  her  burial 
was  made  here. 

In  December,  1830,  Dr.  J.  W.  Alexander  wrote  from  Trenton :  "Dr. 
Thomas  Y.  How,  once  so  famous  for  his  pulpit  eloquence,  and  his  con- 
troversy with  Dr.  Miller,  is  here  delivering  lectures  on  political  and 
moral  subjects,  with  a  voluntary  collection  at  the  close.  I  have  not 
heard  him,  as  his  first  lecture  only  has  been  delivered,  and  that  on 
Sunday  evening."     "Forty  Years'  Letters,"  i.,  155. 

10.  There  was  an  "Edo  Merselius"  in  the  Provincial  Congress  at 
Trenton  from  Bergen,  1775.     "Minutes,"  169,  183. 

11.  None  of  these  blunders  is  so  remarkable  as  one  upon  a  marble 
now  standing  in  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  on  the  grave  of  a 
"daughter  of  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Edwards,  President  of  Prenceta  Col- 
lege, New  Jersey."  Nor  does  this  equal  a  professed  quotation  from  a 
sermon  of  Edward  Irving,  in  a  work  of  Mr.  Wilks,  London,  1854, 
where  the  Presbyterial  exegesis  is  called  an  "ecce  lesum"!  This  is 
noticed  in  the  "Edinburgh  Review"  (Art.  Ecce  Jesu),  1862,  American 
edition,  p.  221. 

Another  similar  blunder  is  that  in  the  Travels  of  the  Marquis  de 
Chastellux  in  North  America,  1780-1782,  in  which  he  says  he  was 
shown  over  Princeton  College  by  the  President  Wederpurn  (Wither- 
spoon).     "Voyages,  &c.,"  Paris,  1786,  vol.  i.,   139,   141. 

12.  In  Dennie's  Monthly  "Portfolio,"  Philadelphia,  1809,  is  a  sketch  of 
Isaac  Smith's  life  and  a  portrait.  Philemon  Dickinson,  Esq.,  in  April, 
1871,  presented  a  framed  copy  of  this  portrait  to  the  church.  Mr. 
Smith  graduated  at  Princeton,  1755,  and  was  a  tutor  there,  with  John 
Ewing  and  Jeremiah  Halsey,  for  a  few  months  before  the  induction 
of  President  Edwards.     (Maclean's  "History,"  vol.  i.,  p.  177.) 

Mr.  Smith  was  a  Presidential  elector  in  1801.  Of  the  epitaph  quoted 
the  "Portfolio"  says : 

"Of  this  tribute  to  departed  worth  we  are  ignorant  of  the  author; 
but  we  should  be  cold  to  another  and  unjust  to  ourselves,  if  we  did 
not  describe  the  epitaph  as  a  successful  specimen  of  the  lapidary 
style."     (See  II  Samuel   18:   18.) 

See  references  to  Isaac  Smith,  in  Index  of  "Minutes  of  Provincial 
Congress,"  and  Whittaker's  "Historical  Sketch  of  Trenton  Banking 
Company,"  page  7 ;  also,  S.  D.  Alexander's  "Eighteenth  Century,"  p.  37. 

13.  The  French  name  of  Bellerjeau  found  many  experitrients  in  the 
way  of  writing  it.  The  Provincial  Congress  made  several  appropria- 
tions to  Daniel  BeUingeau,  for  attendance  as  doorkeeper,  for  example : 

"To  Daniel  BeUingeau,  doorkeeper,  for  his  attendance  14  days  at 
Trenton,  £2,  i6shill."    "Minutes  of  Provincial  Congress,"  1776,  574,  255. 

14.  Godfrey  Wimer  was  grandfather  of  Samuel  Evans,  who  died  in 
our  communion  January,  1881,  aged  89,  and  great-grandfather  of  John 


330  APPENDIX. 

O.  Raum,  historian  of  New  Jersey  and  of  Trenton,  whose  grandfather 
of  that  name  married  Godfrey  Wimer's  daughter. 

15.  A  letter  of  Rev.  John  Brainerd  to  Rev.  Mr.  Cowell  was  sent  "per 
Mr.  Jas.  Bell." 

16.  Mrs.  Rebecca  Ryall  died  May  12,  1859,  at  the  age  of  91.  Her 
daughter,  Mrs.  Susan  C.  Brearley,  died  January  7,  1884,  aged  ninety- 
six,  having  been  sixty-seven  years  a  communicant.  Her  sister,  Rebecca 
Ann  Ryall,  died  in  August,  1866,  age  82. 

17.  Governor  Burnett  writes.  New  York,  Jan.  2,  1724,  that  Chief 
Justice  William  Trent  is  dead,  and  "Mr.  Robert  Lettice  Hooper"  has 
been  nominated  by  the  Governor  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  as  his  suc- 
cessor. "New  Jersey  Archives,"  vol.  v.,  p.  97.  His  commission  does 
not  appear  to  have  been  issued  until  February  29,  1727,  the  first  year 
of  George  11.  The  original  is  in  the  library  of  the  New  Jersey 
Historical  Society,  and  printed  in  the  "Archives,"  vol.  v.,  182,  with  a 
facsimile  of  the  royal  signature.  December  7,  1734,  Governor  Cosby 
recommended  to  the  Lords  of  Trade  to  move  his  majesty  "that 
Robert  Lettice  Hooper,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Province,  may  be  ap- 
pointed Councillor  to  succeed  Lewis  Morris,"  who  had  been  removed. 
"Archives,"    vol.    v,    402. 

18.  "April    8,    1787.      Baptized    Susannah,    third    child    of   John    and 

Singer  of  Trenton."    Note  in  the  diary  of  Rev.  Mr.  Frazer,  rector 

of  St.  Michael's. 

19.  Job  Moore,  the  next  name  to  Singer,  was  the  name  of  the 
father  of  Mrs.  Vandegrift. 

20.  "March  17,  1788.  Baptized  Adrian,  Charlotte  and  Charles,  chil- 
dren of  Capt.  Charles  and  Rachel  Clunn,  of  Burlington."  Rev.  Mr. 
Frazer's  note  in  his  Diary. 

21.  Joseph  Clunn,  ensign  of  a  company  in  Trenton,  whereof  Isaac 
Smith,  Esq,  is  colonel ;  William  Tucker,  captain ;  John  Fitch,  second 
lieutenant.     "Minutes  of  Provincial  Congress,"   1776,  p.  464,  482. 

22.  "I  do  certify  that  I  was  returning  with  John  Fitch  from  the 
Neshaminey  meeting,  some  time  in  April,  1785,  as  near  as  I  can  recol- 
lect the  time,  when  a  gentleman  and  his  wife  passed  by  us  in  a  riding- 
chair;  he  immediately  grew  inattentive  to  what  I  said.  Some  time 
after  he  informed  me  that  at  that  instant  the  first  idea  of  a  steam- 
boat struck  his  mind.  James  OgilbeE."  (Fitch's  Pamphlet,  Phila- 
delphia, 1788;  reprinted  in  Documentary  History  of  New  York,  vol. 
ii.) 

23.  Rev.  Mr.  Frazer  makes  this  note  in  1786:  "December  4th,  buried 
a  daughter  of  Rensselaer  Williams,  Esq.,  at  Trenton."  The  Dutch 
name  is  printed  "Rensselier"  in  the  "Minutes  of  Provincial  Congress" 


APPENDIX.  331 

and  the  "Minutes  of  the  Council  of  Safety,"  1879.  On  July  6,  1776, 
"Ordered,  That  the  President  do  take  the  parole  of  honor  of  Mr.  John 
Lawrence,  of  Monmouth  county,  not  to  depart  the  house  of  Mr. 
Rensselier  Williams ;  and  if  Mr.  Lawrence  should  refuse  to  give  the 
same,  that  the  President  order  him  to  be  confined  under  such  guard 
as  he  may  deem  necessary."  On  August  21,  1776,  "To  Rensselier 
Williams,  six  pounds  six  shillings,  in  full  of  his  account."  (Ordinance 
for  payment  of  incidental  charges  "during  the  sittings  of  this  Con- 
vention.") 

Rensselaer  Williams  was  a  Justice  of  the  Peace.  In  1781  he  was 
Librarian  of  the  "Trenton  Library  Company."  He  was  one  of  the 
founders,  in  that  year,  of  the  "Trenton  School  Company,"  or  Academy. 
He  was  found  dead  in  the  street,  opposite  the  State  House,  December, 
1796.  His  grave  is  in  the  Episcopal  ground,  where  his  age  is  given  at 
sixty-four.  Adjoining  it  is  the  grave  of  Rensselaer  Williams,  Jr., 
who  died  at  the  house  of  Abraham  Hunt,  in  iBoi ;  aged  thirty-three 
years.  He  was  in  mercantile  business  in  Cooperstown,  New  York.  In 
James  Fennimore  Cooper's  "Chronicles  of  Cooperstown,"  it  is  stated 
that  Rensselaer  and  Richard  Williams  "arrived  between  the  years  1792 
and  1797." 

24.  It  was  one  of  Fitch's  or  Rumsey's  experiments  that  Franklin 
wrote  of  in  Philadelphia,  October,  1788:  "We  have  no  philosophical 
news  here  at  present,  except  that  a  boat,  moved  by  a  steam-engine, 
rows  itself  against  the  tide  in  our  river,  and  it  is  apprehended  the  con- 
struction may  be  so  simplified  and  improved  as  to  become  generally 
useful."  (Sparks'  Franklin,  x.,  363.)  I  have  seen  a  letter  of  Fitch  to 
Stacy  Potts,  Philadelphia,  July  28,  1786,  in  which  he  expresses  the 
greatest  satisfaction  in  his  prospects.  "We  have  now  tried  every  part, 
and  reduced  it  to  as  certain  a  thing  as  can  be,  that  we  shall  not  come 
short  of  ten  miles  per  hour,  if  not  twelve  or  fourteen.  I  will  say  four- 
teen in  the  theory  and  ten  in  practice." 

An  advertisement  in  the  "Philadelphia  Gazette"  is  as  follows : 
"The   Steamboat  sets  out  to-morrow  morning  at  ten  o'clock,   from 
Arch  street  ferry,  in  order  to  take  passengers  for  Burlington,  Bristol, 
Bordentown   and   Trenton,    and   return   next   day.      Philadelphia,   July 
26,  1790." 

In  the  "Trenton  Gazette,"  Aug.  7,  1809:  "The  Steamboat"  is  adver- 
tised to  start  for  Philadelphia  three  times  per  week.  "For  passage 
apply  at  the  Indian  Queen,  or  to  the  Captain  on  board,  at  Beatty's 
wharf,  Bloomsbury." 

25.  On  the  same  day  William  Reeder  (which  name  is  also  among 
the  signatures)  conveyed  one  quarter  of  an  acre  for  the  same  pur- 
pose, at  the  price  of  sixty-two  pounds  ten  shillings ;  and  George  Ely 
half  an  acre  for  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds. 


332 


APPENDIX. 


26.  Samuel  Henry  was  under  suspicion  of  disloyalty  in  1776.  A 
"report  of  the  Committee  of  Trenton"  was  made  to  the  Provincial  ^ 
Congress,  July  10.  Mr.  Henry  appeared  before  the  Congress  to  hear 
the  charges  July  16.  The  next  day  he  was  "committed  to  the  common 
gaol  of  Hunterdon"  to  be  kept  "in  close  confinement  until  the  fur- 
ther order  of  this  Congress,  or  future  legislature  of  this  State."  On 
the  20th  he  made  such  acknowledgment  that  the  Congress,  "for  the 
contrition  expressed  in  the  above  petition,"  discharged  him  from 
confinement,  on  his  giving  bond  in  the  sum  of  2,000  pounds,  "for  the 
faithful  performance  of  his  parole,  to  remove  to  his  mills  in  Trenton, 
and  there,  or  within  a  circle  of  two  miles  thereof,  continue  and  not 

to   depart   said  bounds   unless  with   leave   of  this   convention,   or  the 
future  legislature  of  this  State."     "Minutes,"  498,  508,  511,  515. 

27.  In  1775,  "Thomas  Lowrey"  petitioned  the  Provincial  Congress 
for  recommendation  to  the  Continental  Congress  as  "Commissary  to 
the  two  battalions  recommended  to  be  raised  in  this  colony."  His 
request  was  granted.  In  1776  "Thomas  Lowrey"  was  appointed  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel of  the  Third  Battalion  of  foot  militia  in  the  county  of 
Hunterdon."    "Minutes,"  237,  265. 

28.  It  may  be  added  to  this  chapter  that  in  1771-2,  Mr.  Spencer  was 
associated  with  Dr.  Witherspoon,  on  behalf  of  "the  Presbyterian 
clergy  in  communion  with  the  present  established  Church  of  Scotland 
residing  in  the  Province  of  New  Jersey,"  in  obtaining  from  the  Colo- 
nial Council  a  charter  for  incorporating  the  "New  Jersey  Society  for 
the  better  support  of  the  widows  and  education  of  the  children  of 
deceased  Presbyterian  Ministers."  The  draught  of  the  charter  as  first 
proposed  presented  as  corporators  the  names  of  Richard  Stockton, 
Elias  Boudinot,  William  Livingston,  William  Burnet,  Robert  Ogden, 
Nathaniel  Scudder,  Witherspoon,  Spencer  and  others.  After  amend- 
ments in  form,  as  proposed  by  the  Attorney-General  Skinner,  the 
King  allowed  the  charter,  and  Governor  Franklin  wrote  to  the  Earl 
of  Dartmouth,  October,  1773,  that  "the  Presbyterian  Ministers  are 
much  pleased  with  the  permission  his  Majesty  has  given  me  to  pass 
the  charter  they  had  requested ;  which  will  be  done  at  the  next  meet- 
ing of  the  Council."  "Analytical  Index,"  427,  431.  "Archives,"  339, 
409. 


APPENDIX.  333 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

1.  In  May,  June  and  August,  1775,  the  Provincial  Congress  of  New- 
Jersey  met  in  Trenton,  May  24th.  The  President,  Hendrick  Fisher, 
of  Somerset,  was  directed  to  write  the  ministers  of  the  town  to  alter- 
nate in  opening  the  Congress  with  prayer  each  morning  at  8.  Rev. 
Mr.  Spencer  officiated  on  October  4,  1775.  A  resolution  of  thanks  to 
Rev.  Messrs.  Spencer  and  Panton  "for  their  polite  attention  and  serv- 
ices" was  adopted.  "Minutes  of  Provincial  Congress,"  pp.  170,  198, 
254- 

2.  In  the  "Life  of  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Miller,"  by  his  son,  vol.  i., 
■chapter  xi,  fuller  particulars  are  given  of  the  disturbance  created  in 
the  pastor's  family  at  this  period  of  the  war.  Mr.  Spencer,  on  being 
informed  by  Dr.  Witherspoon  of  the  enemy's  approach  to  Trenton, 
took  his  family  the  same  night  to  Howell's  ferry,  and  then  to  Mc- 
Conkey's  ferry,  for  two  or  three  weeks,  until  General  Mercer  sent 
him  word  he  was  not  safe  there.  "This  was  the  Sunday  before  the 
"battle  of  Trenton.  He  preached  that  day  at  Newtown  (Pennsylvania). 
Afterwards,  he  went  on  slowly  to  Fagg's  Manor,  where  he  remained 
until  the  people  of  St.  George,  Delaware,  hearing  that  their  former 
pastor  was  a  fugitive,  and  being  themselves  without  one,  sent  for  him. 
He  accepted  their  invitation,  and  on  his  arrival  found  a  house  ready, 
well  supplied  with  furniture  and  provisions,  the  wood  cut,  the  fires 
made,  and  everything  prepared  for  the  comfort  of  his  family.  Here 
they  remained  until  the  July  following,  when,  St.  George's  being 
sickly,  and  Trenton  free  from  the  British  soldiery,  he  returned  home." 

3.  In  Dr.  Witherspoon's  Works  (vol.  2,  Philadelphia  edition,  1800, 
p.  451)  is  a  sermon  "delivered  at  a  Public  Thanksgiving  after  peace," 
in  which,  speaking  of  "particular  acts  of  barbarity,"  is  this  sentence : 
"I  shall  therefore  omit  everything  of  the  kind,  except  one  of  the  earliest 
instances  of  their  barbarity,  because  it  happened  in  one  of  the  streets 
of  this  place,  viz.,  massacring  in  cold  blood  a  minister  of  the  Gospel, 
who  was  not,  nor  had  been,  in  arms,  and  received  his  death  wound 
while  on  his  knees  begging  mercy."  It  is  not  said  where  the  sermon 
was  preached. 

The  proper  spelling  of  the  name  is  Rosbrugh.  Rev.  John  C.  Clyde, 
D.  D.,  Bloomsbury,  read  an  exhaustive  paper  on  him  before  the  New 
Jersey  Historical  Society,  at  Trenton,  Jan.  15,  1880,  afterward  pub- 
lished under  the  title  of  "Rosbrugh,  a  Tale  of  the  Revolution."  Easton, 
1880,  p.  92. 

4.  From  Sprague's  "Annals"  I  find  that  the  Rev.  Mr.  Macwhorter 
was  in  the  camp  of  Washington,  opposite  Trenton,  at  the  time  of  the 
battle  of  1776;  and  that  William  Paxton  (afterwards  D.  D.)  was  in 
the  ranks  on  that  occasion,  iii,  210,  554. 


334 


APPENDIX. 


5.  Then  King  street,  as  the  present  Greene  (Broad)  was  Queen. 
The  former  was  also  familiarily  called  Front,  and  the  latter  Back 
street.  The  "Federal  Post  or  Trenton  Weekly  Mercury,"  was  printed 
in  1788,  by  Quequelle  and  Wilson,  "on  the  north  side  of  Front  St., 
opposite  the  English  Church,"  the  neighborhood  of  Rahl's  death. 

6.  This  house  is  advertised  for  rent  in  the  Trenton  Gazette,  Decem- 
ber, 1784,  where  it  is  said  to  have  been  lately  occupied  by  the  President 
of  Congress.  It  was  provided  for  his  use  by  James  Ewing,  Moore 
Furman,  and  Conrad  Kotts,  by  the  direction  of  the  Legislature  (August 
25,  1784).  The  lease,  which  is  before  me,  stipulates  also  for  ''the  hay- 
house  nearly  full  of  very  good  hay,  with  the  stables  on  each  side 
thereof,  together  with  a  ten-plate  stove  belonging  to  the  front  part  of 
the  said  house,"  but  "reserving  the  use  of  the  road  as  it  now  goes  to 
the  tan-yard,  and  so  much  of  the  lot  as  Samuel  Phillips  may  have 
occasion  for,  adjoining  his  shop."  The  lease  was  for  one  year  from 
October  30,  1784,  at  one  hundred  and  fifty  pounds  in  gold  or  silver 
(four  hundred  dollars).  The  house  was  the  residence  of  Stacy  Potts, 
and  not  a  tavern,  as  is  stated  in  Lossing's  "Field  Book."  It  was  taken 
down  in  1857. 

7.  Williams's  tavern  is  also  mentioned  by  the  Marquis  de  Chastellux^ 
at  the  time  of  whose  visit  an  addition  seems  to  have  been  made  to  the 
emblems  of  its  sign  ;  for  he  says  it  represented  a  beaver  at  work  with 
his  teeth  to  bring  down  a  large  tree,  and  had  the  motto  "Perseverando." 
(Travels  in  North  America,  1780-2).  The  tree,  beaver  and  legend  con- 
stituted one  of  the  devices  printed  on  the  Continental  currency  of  1776; 
the  money  which  fell  so  much  below  the  promise  on  its  face,  that  in  the 
Trenton  advertisements  of  1780  may  be  found  offers  of  a  thousand  dol- 
lars reward  for  an  absconding  servant — fifteen  hundred  for  a  stolen 
mare — ten  thousand  for  the  detection  of  the  incendiary  of  a  barn.  The 
subscription  of  the  Weekly  Gazette,  of  that  year,  was  fourteen  dollars 
by  the  quarter. 

8.  To  President  John  Adams'  notice  of  Trenton  in  1774  may  now  be 
appended  that  of  his  son  and  successor  in  the  Presidency  seventy 
years  afterwards.  On  his  passage  home  to  Quincy  from  Congress, 
July  II,  1844,  John  Quincy  Adams  made  this  entry  in  his  journal: 
"At  five  in  the  afternoon  we  left  Walnut  .street  wharf  and  came  to 
Bristol,  twenty  miles,  and  there  landed  and  proceeded  in  the  train 
of  cars  through  New  Brunswick.  Elizabethtown  and  Newark  to  Jersey 
City.  The  sunset  between  Trenton  and  New  Brunswick  was  glorious, 
and  equal  to  anything  I  ever  beheld.  As  I  witnessed  the  departing 
luminary,  and  the  peace  and  quiet  and  felicity  of  all  around  me,  I 
thought  of  Washington  and  Trenton  and  the  25th  of  December,  1776, 
and  a  feeling  of  inexpressible  joy  filled  my  soul."  "Memoirs,"  xii., 
70. 


APPENDIX.  335 

In  the  year  1774  Governor  Franklin  reported  "The  tide  in  this  river 
(Delaware)  goes  no  higher  than  Trenton  in  New  Jersey,  which  is 
about  thirty  miles  above  Philadelphia,  where  there  is  a  Rift  or  Falls, 
passable,  however,  with  flat-bottomed  boats  which  carry  five  or  six 
hundred  bushels  of  wheat.  By  these  boats,  of  which  there  are  now  a 
great  number,  the  produce  of  both  sides  the  river  for  upwards  of  one 
hundred  miles  above  Trenton  are  brought  to  Philadelphia." 
"Archives,"  x,  438. 


336 


APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


1.  In  the  minutes  of  the  Trustees  of  the  University,  Mr.  Spencer  is 
called  EUsha.  The  same  mistake  is  made  in  the  first  edition  of  Thomp- 
son's History  of  Long  Island,  where  also  his  great-grandfather  Jared 
is  called  Gerard. 

2.  The  Minister  was  the  Chevalier  de  la  Luzerne.  The  Dauphin  was 
son  of  Louis  XVI  and  Marie  Antoinette,  and  died  in  childhood.  The 
birth  was  formally  announced  to  Congress,  and  by  Congress  to  the 
Governors  of  the  States.  It  was  celebrated  in  Trenton,  May  24,  1782, 
when  the  "town  artillery  paraded  at  the  market-place,"  and  a  dinner 
was  attended  by  the  officers  of  the  State  at  "the  French  Arms." 

3.  In  Rev.  James  F.  Armstrong's  MSS.  is  a  fragment  like  an  obit- 
uary, beginning:  "Died  on  Monday,  the  28th  ult.  Miss  Rachel  Fur- 
man,  daughter  of  Mr.  Nathaniel  Furman,  of  Trenton,  in  the  twenty- 
fourth  year  of  her  age." 

Mr.  Furman  was  in  the  Board  from  1780  to  1788.  I  suppose  that 
it  is  his  death  which  is  published  as  having  taken  place  April  27,  1831, 
in  his  eighty-eighth  year.  Mr.  Tindai,'s  is  an  old  and  respectable  fam- 
ily.   The  other  Trustees  are  spoken  of  in  detail  in  other  chapters. 

4.  Daniel  Howell's  will  was  proved  in  1778;  the  legacy  was  payable 
in  two  years.  He  was  brother  of  Hezekiah,  John,  Abigail,  Eunice 
(Phillips),  and  Phebe  (Phillips).  His  children  were  Rhoda,  Sarah 
and  Elizabeth.  A  relative  of  his,  David  Howell,  died  in  1785,  leaving 
three  daughters — Prudence,  Patience,  Charity. 

Jethro  Yard  (as  I  gather  from  his  will)  was  a  carpenter.  He  was 
a  son  of  William  Yard. 

5.  Mr.  Jefferson,  in  his  Autobiography,  says :  "I  left  home  on  the 
sixteenth  of  October  [1783],  arrived  at  Trenton,  where  Congress  was 
sitting,  on  the  third  of  November,  and  took  my  seat  on  the  fourth,  on 
which  day  Congress  adjourned,  to  meet  at  Annapolis  on  the  twenty- 
sixth."  This  statement  has  been  followed  by  his  biographers.  Tucker 
and  Randall,  but  Congress  was  sitting  at  Princeton,  not  Trenton. 

6.  Saltash  was  granted  to  sixty-four  proprietors  in  1761,  settled  in 
1777,  and  in  1797  the  name  was  changed  to  Plymouth.  Plymouth 
and  Woodstock  are  in  the  same  county,  Windsor.  B.  H.  Hall's  "His- 
tory of  Eastern  Vermont,"  p.  113. 

7.  An  advertisement  in  a  Philadelphia  newspaper  of  July  16,  1776, 
calls  on  "the  good  people  of  this  city  and  province,  and  of  the  province 
of  New  Jersey,  to  send  all  the  old  sheets  and  other  old  linen  they  can 
possibly  spare,  to  Doctor  Shippen,  junior,  for  the  use  of  the  military 


APPENDIX.  337 

hospitals  in  New  Jersey.''  The  people  of  New  Jersey  are  requested 
to  send  their  donations  to  Doctor  Cowell  in  Trenton,  Doctor  Bain- 
bridge  in  Princeton,  Doctor  Cochran  in  Brunswick,  Mr.  Pettit  in 
Amboy,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Caldwell  in  Elizabethtown.  Dr.  Cowell  and 
his  brother  Ebenezer,  the  lawyer,  both  bachelors,  lived  in  a  large 
house  on  the  Pennington  road.  On  a  grave-stone  in  the  Presbyterian 
church-yard  we  read : 

'Tn  memory  of  Doct.  David  Cowell,  who  departed  this  life  Dec.  i8, 
1783,  aged  43  years." 

I  have  seen  a  letter  of  David  Cowell  (the  M.D.)  to  "Mr.  Benjamin 
Cornwill,  near  Pennington,"  as  follows : 

"Trenton,  July  14th,  1782. 

"Sir — Agreeable  to  your  request,  I  have  took  an  opportunity  and 
talked  with  Jacob  Blackwell  about  your  affair  and  assured  him  that 
you  are  willing  to  have  all  your  money  matters  settled  by  the  Tables. 
The  Assembly  have  made  a  law  for  the  settlement  of  all  such  matters. 
He  says  he  is  willing  to  the  same  thing,  and  on  its  being  done  so  he 
will  make  you  a  deed  agreeable  to  your  bargain.  Or  if  you  do  not 
Hke  your  bargain  on  account  of  the  title  or  any  other  thing,  you  shall 
have  your  money  which  you  have  paid  paid  back  to  you  by  the 
same  Table,  on  your  giving  up  the  premises ;  so  that  if  you  come 
down  I  can  see  no  reasonable  objection  to  the  whole  matter's  being 
finally  settled,  without  cost  or  trouble,  in  the  very  exact  way  they 
would  be  settled  were  it  done  by  court — to  which  good  purpose  you 
may  always  command  your  friend  and  very  humble  servant, 

"David  Cowell." 


23   PRES 


338  APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

1.  A  candidate  who  had  been  examined  with  Mr.  Armstrong,  up  to 
this  point,  was  not  so  successful;  and  for  the  sake  of  illustrating  the 
proper  care  of  a  Presbytery  in  the  matter  of  licensure,  and  the  manner 
in  which  it  is  performed,  I  copy  the  minute  in  this  case : 

"The  Presbytery  then  proceeded  to  consider  Mr.  W.'s  examination 
and  sermon ;  and  after  the  most  mature  deliberation  are  unanimously 
of  opinion  that  they  cannot  sustain  either  his  examination  or  his  ser- 
mon as  parts  of  trial,  inasmuch  as  in  his  examination,  although  he 
manifested  a  competent  skill  in  the  languages,  yet  he  appeared  almost 
wholly  unacquainted  with  several  of  the  most  important  of  the  liberal 
arts  and  sciences,  and  also  greatly  deficient  in  his  knowledge  of  divin- 
ity; and  although  his  sermon  contained  some  just  and  pious  senti- 
ments, yet  there  appeared  in  it  such  confusion  in  the  arrangement  of 
the  thoughts,  such  obscurity  in  expression,  and  inaccuracy  in  many 
of  the  sentiments,  "that  they  cannot  consider  it  as  an  evidence  of  his 
capacity  to  be  useful  as  a  public  teacher  in  the  Church  of  Christ. 

"Therefore  the  Presbytery  agreed  to  recommend  to  M;r.  W.,  if  he 
choose  to  prosecute  his  trials  further  with  a  view  to  the  Gospel  min- 
istry, then  he  apply  himself  diligently  to  the  study  of  logic,  natural  and 
moral  philosophy,  and  divinity,  for  one  year  from  this  time,  as  in  these 
branches  he  appeared  to  be  most  deficient ;  also  that  he  study  compo- 
sition with  care,  and  labor  to  acquire  a  more  clear  and  perspicuous 
method  of  communicating  his  ideas.  And  as  they  entertain  a  favorable 
opinion  of  Mr.  W.,  for  his  modest,  decent,  and  humble  deportment, 
will  always  be  ready  to  give  him  all  due  encouragement,  provided  he 
make  such  improvement  in  the  above  articles  as  shall  remove  the 
difficulties  that  now  lie  in  the  way  of  their  admitting  him  into  the 
ministry." 

The  candidate  probably  withdrew  from  this  Presbytery ;  but  he  must 
have  found  some  way  to  licensure,  as  in  1784  the  Presbytery  of  New- 
castle began  to  call  him  to  account  for  neglecting  to  preach,  and  in 
1785  dropped  him  as  their  probationer,  on  evidence  that  he  had  devoted 
himself  to  a  secular  life. 

2.  In  the  archives  of  the  church  is  the  certificate  of  his  licensure 
dated  "Elk  Meeting  House,  Jany  15,  1777,"  attested  by  "Jas.  Ander- 
son, Presby  Clerk."  It  states  that  Mr.  Armstrong  being  under  trials 
in  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick,  he  now  appears  with  a  letter 
from  Dr.  Witherspoon,  "Prof,  of  Divinity  and  a  member  of  said 
Presby,"  certifying  that  he  "had  passed  the  greater  part  of  his  trials" 
"but  by  reason  of  the  public  distress  of  the  State  would  not  proceed  to 
license  him   and   requests   this    Presby  to   hear  his  popular   discourse, 


APPENDIX.  339 

the  only  remaining  part  of  his  trials,  and  if  the  way  be  clear,  to  pro- 
ceed to  his  licensure."  They  did  so,  "and  considering  his  circumstances 
very  peculiar,  judge  their  way  clear,"  etc. 

3.  The  following  document  is  in  possession  of  Mr.  Armstrongs 
family:  "I  do  hereby  certify  that  Mr.  James  Francis  Armstrong  bore 
arms  in  the  year  1776,  in  an  expedition  formed  for  the  defense  of 
Staten  Island  against  the  British  troops,  and  served  as  a  volunteer 
private  in  my  company  of  Militia  wholly  at  his  own  expense,  without 
drawing  any  of  the  subsistence  due  to  a  Volunteer,  from  the  time  the 
troops  were  raised  until  they  were  regularly  discharged. 

"Peter  Gordon,  Qr  Master,  Trenton. 
"November  28th,   1778." 

4.  "Sine  titulo,"  "in  retentis,"  "pro  re  nata,"  "sederunt,"  "non 
liquet,"  "nemine  contradicente,"  "ad  futuram  rei  memoriam,"  "inter- 
loquitur,"  "pro  tanto,"  "in  defenso,"  "in  hoec  verba,"  "de  novo,"  and 
other  Latin  substitutes  for  plain  English  (sometimes  even  "Janitor" 
for  Sexton),  are  freely  used  in  the  ecclesiastical  records  of  the  last 
century.  The  old  Presbyteries  and  Synods  used  to  date  their  sessions 
in  Latin :  "Die  Jovis,"  "Die  Saturni,"  "Post  Merid.  Sessione  ^ta. 
Precibus  peractis."  They  habitually  employed  the  learned  tongue  to  say 
that  after  prayer  the  members  named  took  their  seats.  Some  of  the  New 
Brunswick  clerks  ventured  on  writing  "present  after  prayer,"  and 
"present  as  before,"  but  in  April,  1798,  this  innovation  was  checked 
by  the  following  direction :  "Resolved,  that  the  Presbytery  in  future, 
for  the  sake  of  greater  uniformity,  make  use  of  the  old  technical  terms 
ubi  post  preces  sederunt,  in  recording  the  first  session  of  their  meetings, 
and  at  any  subsequent  session,  post  preces  sederunt  qui  supra."  It 
was,  however,  considered  lawful  to  give  only  the  initials  of  the 
formula,  and  many  a  clerk  spent  more  time  and  room  in  an  elaborate 
execution  of  the  capitals  U.  P.  P.  S.  and  U.  P.  P.  S.  Q.  S.,  than  would 
have  answered  for  the  words  in  full.  The  act  of  the  Presbytery  was, 
perhaps,  a  testimony  against  the  course  adopted  by  the  Synod  of 
1795,  when  it  "Resolved,  that  the  Synod  will  discontinue  the  use  of 
Latin  terms  in  their  records  to  express  the  opening  of  their  session, 
and  their  attendance  on  prayer,  and  that  the  same  in  future  be  ex- 
pressed  in   English." 

5.  Since  this  History  was  published  I  have  seen  in  MS.  a  sermon 
by  Mr.  Armstrong,  marked  by  him  thus :  "Delivered  in  the  spring  of 
the  year  1779,  to  his  Excellency  Gen'l  Washington  and  the  Guards  at 
Middlebrook."  The  army  was  on  both  sides  of  the  North  river  during 
the  winter  of  1778-9.  More  than  7,000  were  at  Middlebrook  under 
the  immediate  command  of  Gen'l  Washington.  The  army  left  Middle- 
brook May  29,  1779.     Marshall's  "Life  of  Washington,"  vol.  iv.,  57. 

The  text  of  the  sermon  was  Proverbs  14 :  34,  and  probably  had  been 
previously   delivered   on   one   of   the   Fast   Days   appointed   by   Synod. 


340  APPENDIX. 

I  have  placed  it  in  the  archives  of  the  church.     I  also  sent  an  abstract 
of  it  to  the  New  York  Observer,  February  22,  1877. 

6.  In  a  Thanksgiving  sermon  (not  dated,  but  probably  at  the  close 
of  the  war)  he  says:  "it  will  be  sufficient  to  my  present  purpose  to 
assure  you  that  I  have  seen  the  hour  of  danger  when  the  whole  six 
Southern  States  were  not  able  to  bring  500  men  into  the  field  to  oppose 
a  victorious  enemy." 

In  the  same  (on  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill),  "I  have  been  informed 
that  General  Howe  never  could  erase  it  from  his  mind;  it  haunted 
his  pillow  and  disturbed  his  slumbers.  Whenever  he  had  a  battle  in 
prospect,  Bunker  Hill  was  painted  in  his  imagination,  and  he  could  not 
be  induced  to  risque  an  action  where  there  was  the  least  appearance  of 
breastworks,  or  unless  he  had  such  appearances  of  superiority  or 
advantage  as  would  ensure  success.  This  doubtless  gave  that  wary 
complexion  to  all  his  conduct  which  gave  time  to  our  army  to  learn 
experience  and  discipline." 

7.  William  Churchill  Houston,  Mr.  Armstrong's  correspondent, 
and  afterwards  a  parishioner  in  Trenton,  was  a  native  of  South  Car- 
oHna.  After  the  age  of  twenty-one  he  entered  Princeton  College  as 
a  Freshman :  while  himself  a  student  he  assisted  in  teaching  the  Gram- 
mar School.  He  graduated  1768.  In  1769,  being  then  Master  of  the 
School,  he  was  elected  Senior  Tutor  of  College,  and  in  1771..  Professor 
of  Mathematics  and  Natural  Philosophy.  He  resigned  the  chair  1783, 
at  which  time  he  was  also  Treasurer  of  the  Trustees.  Two  years 
before  his  resignation  he  had  been,  after  the  requisite  course  of  study, 
admitted  to  the  bar.  He  removed  to  Trenton,  and  had  a  large  prac- 
tice, notwithstanding  his  rigid  adherence  to  the  determination  that 
he  would  never  undertake  a  cause  which  he  did  not  believe  to  be 
just.  Mr.  Houston  held  several  public  offices,  such  as  Receiver  of 
Continental  taxes  (1782-5),  and  Clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court  (1781-8). 
He  was  five  times  (first  in  1779)  elected  to  the  Congresses  of  the 
Confederation.  He  was  one  of  the  three  delegates  of  New  Jersey 
to  the  body  of  Commissioners  which  met  at  Annapolis  (1786),  which 
resulted  in  suggesting  the  Convention  which  formed  the  Constitu- 
tion. He  was  appointed  a  member  of  that  Convention,  but  declining 
health  seems  to  have  prevented  his  attendance.  In  1788  he  left  Trenton 
to  try  the  benefit  of  his  native  climate,  but  before  he  reached  Phila- 
delphia illness  compelled  him  to  stop,  and  he  died  at  an  inn  in  the 
village  of  Frankford.  His  body  was  taken  for  burial  to  the  ground 
of  the  Second  Presbyterian  Church  in  Philadelphia.  For  most  of 
these  particulars  I  am  indebted  to  a  notice  communicated  by  my 
friend,  William  C.  Alexander,  Esq.,  to  the  New  York  Observer  of 
March  18,   1858. 

"A  letter  from  William  Ch.  Houston,  captain  of  a  company  in  the 
2d  Battalion  of  Foot  militia  in  the  county  of  Somerset,  setting  forth 


APPENDIX.  341 

that  from  his  connexion  with  the  College,  in  the  absence  of  Dr. 
Witherspoon  and  other  circumstances,  he  cannot  pay  the  due  atten- 
tion to  his  company,  and  begging  leave  to  resign  his  commission." 
"Minutes  of  Provincial  Congress,"  395,  541,  542. 

See,  also,  Maclean's  "History  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,"  i : 
313,  314. 

8.  For  several  years  the  Presbytery  met  at  New  Brunswick,  Prince- 
ton, and  Trenton  in  rotation.  The  efforts  to  repeal  the  rule  were  not 
successful  until  April,  1801. 

9.  The  business  meetings  were  not  always  held  in  sacred  places. 
This  one  was  "at  the  house  of  Francis  Witt,  in  Trenton."  At  the 
next  stated  meeting  of  the  Trustees,  "the  weather  being  severe,  they 
adjourned  to  the  house  of  Francis  Witt,  inn-keeper."  At  other  times 
the  place  was  "the  house  of  Henry  Drake,  inn-keeper." 

10.  The  actual  cost  exceeded  the  estimate  by  seventy-five  pounds. 

11.  The  parsonage  deeds  may  be  found  in  Book  AT.  103,  106.  The 
Trustees  of  "the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Trenton,"  which  was 
the  title  taken  by  the  country  church  upon  the  separation,  were  Daniel 
Scudder,  John  Howell,  Ebenezer  Ross,  Timothy  Howell,  William' 
Green,  James  Burroughs,  and  Benjamin  Johnston.  Mr.  Kirkpatrick 
was  probably  the  first  occupant  of  the  parsonage.  In  1768-70,  "Mrs. 
Sarah  Trent"  was  credited  for  the  rent.  The  Rev.  Dr.  How  (1816-21) 
was  the  last  of  the  pastors  who  resided  in  it  before  it  was  sold. 

In  the  Trenton  Emporium,  December  15,  1821,  the  parsonage  is 
advertised  for  sale.  "The  house  is  of  frame,  32  by  30,  two  stories ; 
three  rooms  and  a  large  hall,  all  of  which  have  fireplaces  in  them, 
on  the  first  floor;  four  chambers  with  fireplaces  in  them  and  a  good 
store-room  on  the  second  floor ;  one  room  in  the  garret ;  a  dry  stone 
cellar  under  the  whole,  divided  into  suitable  apartments,  and  a  large, 
convenient  frame  kitchen  in  the  rear.  The  lot  is  sixty-five  feet  front 
by  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet  deep,  having  a  well-arranged 
stable  and  carriage-house,  with  a  hay-loft  over  both :  a  well  of  excel- 
lent water  in  the  yard  and  a  garden  of  convenient  size." 

12.  Marquis  de  Chastellux,  "Voyages  dans  I'Amerique,"  1780-2, 
Paris,  1786,  vol.  i.,  285,  speaks  of  visiting  Ringwood,  "a  hamlet  of 
seven  or  eight  houses,  formed  of  the  manor  of  Mrs.  Erskine  and  the 
forges  she  was  concerned  in.  Mr.  Erskine  had  been  two  months 
dead.  Mrs.  Erskine  was  nearly  forty  years  of  age.  One  of  her 
nephews  was  at  the  house,  and  Mr.  John  Fell,  a  member  of  Congress." 

Erskine  and  the  iron  works  are  mentioned  in  the  "Proceedings  of 
the  New  Jersey  Historical  Society,"  vol.  vi.,  148,  &c. 

Rev.  A.  Messier,  D.D.,  of  Somerville,  furnished  me  the  following 
copies  of  inscriptions  at  Ringwood,  Passaic  county,  New  Jersey: 


342 


APPENDIX. 


"In  memory  of  Robert  Erskine,  F.R.S.,  Geographer  and  Surveyor- 
General  to  the  Army  of  the  United  States.  Son  of  the  Rev'd  Ralph 
Erskine,  late  Minister  of  Dunfermline  in  Scotland.  Born  Sep.  7th, 
1735.     Died  Oct'r  2,  1780,  aged  45  years  and  25  days." 

"In  memory  of  Robert  Monteith,  Clark  to  Robert  Erskine,  Esq., 
born  at  Dunblain  in  Scotland.    Died  Dec'r  2,  1778,  aged  33  years." 


APPENDIX.  343 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

1.  One  of  Mr.  Armstrong's  sermons,  from  I  Corinthians  14:  15, 
was  on  Singing,  and  was  "Preached  by  particular  request  in  the  year 
1786  or  7,  at  Dr.  Woodhull's  church  in  Freehold,  Monmouth." 

2.  Mr.  Armstrong's  family  gave  me  a  paper,  in  his  own  handwriting, 
at  the  close  of  which  he  had  written :  "The  above  is  a  copy  of  the 
paper,  rules,  and  articles  which  were  laid  before  the  reHgious  society 
formed  in  the  Presbyterian  congregation  in  Trenton  at  its  institution, 
for  their  free  and  full  discussion,  and  were  unanimously  agreed  to 
by  said  Society  somewhere  in  the  beginning  of  the  year  1790.  James 
F.  Armstrong."' 

The  week-day  evening  service,  now  generally  called  "Lecture,"  was 
at  the  date  of  this  paper  and  long  afterwards,  usually  termed  "So- 
ciety." 

The  paper  in  full  is  as  follows : 

"Associations,  Meetings,  Conferences,  or  Societies,  call  them  by 
what  name  you  please,  for  religious  or  moral  purposes,  have  often 
been  attended  with  the  happiest  advantage  to  Society  and  have  often 
been  visited  with  the  divine  blessing  and  the  divine  presence.  Asso- 
ciations for  the  promotion  of  Virtue  and  ReHgion  and  for  discoun- 
tenancing and  suppressing  vice  and  immorality  have  often  been  pro- 
ductive of  great  good  to  Society  in  general,  and  these  associations, 
when  united  with  meetings  or  societies  for  the  express  purpose  of 
humiliation  and  Prayer  to  God  for  spiritual  blessings  upon  Church 
and  Land  have  been  abundantly  useful  and  done  much  good  for  the 
advancement  of  serious  Religion,  and  these  united  societies  religiously 
and  prudently  conducted  are  often  highly  beneficial  and  helpful  under 
the  exercises  of  a  faithful  Ministry  and  may  tend  to  promote  the  com- 
fort and  profit  of  both  Pastor  and  People  in  their  congregational 
exercises. 

"As  those  who  meet  for  the  purpose  of  imploring  the  Father  of 
Mercies  for  spiritual  blessings  must  also  have  in  view  the  advantages 
resulting  from  both  institutions,  viz. :  For  Prayer  and  the  suppressing 
of  Disorders.  The  principles  upon  which  both  are  founded  and  the 
effects  naturally  to  be  expected  should  be  fully  and  freely  discussed — 
and  rules  and  articles  for  the  good  management  and  government  of 
both  shall  be  laid  before  those  who  meet  in  this  Society  for  their  dis- 
cussion and  adoption. 

A  prayer  Society  ought  certainly  to  be  under  the  direction  and  Gov- 
ernment of  those  who  in  the  Judgment  of  Charity  are  friends  to 
serious  Religion,  and  their  lives  should  correspond  with  their  pro- 
fession,  and   whatever   exercises   are   performed   should   be   performed 


344 


APPENDIX. 


by  such— at  the  same  time  so  soon  as  the  Society  is  well  established 
none  ought  to  be  refused  the  privilege  of  attending  to  whom  the 
exercises  carried  on  might  be  expected  to  be  productive  of  any  good. 
The  attendance  upon  this  Meeting  must  be  purely  voluntary— no  obli- 
gations upon  any  person  but  such  as  are  imposed  by  their  own  opinion 
or  feelings,  and  if  any  should  attend  it  only  at  times,— or  if  after 
attending  sometimes  should  choose  to  absent  themselves,  no  opinion 
of  religious  character  ought  to  be  formed  from  such  conduct.  In 
short,  attendance  upon  such  meetings  ought  not  to  be  made  a  term 
of  communion,  as  it  is  in  some  societies — such  terms  lay  an  unlawful 
as  well  as  unchristian  burthen  upon  the  conscience,  often  wound  the 
peace  and  harmony  of  Society,  and  create  real  disorder  and  confusion, 
as  well  as  prevent  the  good  which  they  may  be  intended  to  promote." 


Rules  and  Articles  for  the  Society. 

"I.  When  the  Pastor  of  the  congregation  in  which  the  Society  is 
formed  attends,  it  will  be  natural  to  expect  that  he  should  begin 
the  Exercises  by  Prayer  or  singing,  give  an  exhortation,  Lecture,  or 
exposition  of  a  part  of  scripture  or  catechism  as  may  appear  good 
to  him,  and  then  call  upon  someone  of  those  who  profess  religion, 
as  may  be  determined  among  them'selves,  to  conclude  the  exercises 
by  singing  and  Prayer, — always  remembering  that  both  religion  and 
prudence  dictate  that  the  exercises  should  be  short, — perhaps  the 
whole  not  exceeding  an  hour,  unless  something  particular  or  un- 
common should  justify  it. 

"II.  If  the  Society  should  at  times  indulge  themselves  in  devotional 
conversation,  which  may  be  thought  profitable,  no  subject,  whether 
giving  opinions  upon  the  sense  of  passages  of  Scripture,  or  religious 
principles  shall  ever  be  admitted  which  may  lead  to  disputations. 

"III.  No  person,  except  the  Pastor,  shall  ever  pretend  to  exhort, 
instruct  or  Lecture  to  the  Society. 

"IV.  When  the  Pastor  is  absent,  one  or  more  of  those  agreed  upon 
by  the  Society  shall  sing  or  pray — read  passages  of  Scripture — ap- 
proved devotional  writings — or  short  sermons,  and  conclude  by  sing- 
ing and  prayer." 

In  a  sermon,  without  date,  by  Mr.  Armstrong,  on  prayer,  he  said: 
"There  are  other  stated  times  which  ought  to  be  attended  to,  such  as 
prayer  meetings  and  religious  societies,  where  people  meet  sometimes 
to  converse  together  about  the  things  of  God,  but  more  commonly 
for  social  prayer  and  praise,  for  reading  the  Holy  Scriptures  and 
such  books  of  practical  piety  and  devotion  as  may  tend  to  the  in- 
struction and  edification  of  God's  people.  Such  societies  and  meetings 
with  us,  are  and  ought  to  be  voluntary,  and  attendance  on  them  ought 
not  to  be  made  terms  of  communion  or  discipline,  at  the  same  time 


APPENDIX.  345 

it  is  highly  discreet  and  becoming  to  attend  them  as  regularly  as  our 
circumstances  and  our   callings   and   private   concerns   will   admit." 

In  another  sermon,  no  date : 

"It  is  no  new  custom  in  our  churches  to  have  divine  service  once 
a  month,  beside  the  stated  weekly  service.  It  has  long  been  practiced, 
and  continues  to  be  practiced  by  many.  Yet,  my  brethren,  I  enter 
upon  it  with  trembling  because  I  know  ye  propensity  of  the  human 
heart  to  view  human  institutions  *  *  *  as  of  equal  importance  with 
the  word  and  command  of  God.  This  day  is  not  appointed  to  be  ob- 
served as  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer  in  a  congregational  way;  but 
rather  to  fix  in  our  remembrance  the  importance  of  this  commanded 
duty." 

3.  This  name  has  become  so  venerable  and  familiar  that  it  strikes  one 
with  surprise  to  find  that  in  the  sermon  preached  by  Provost  Ewing  at 
his  ordination  and  installment  (May  15,  1787,)  it  is  given  both  on  the 
title  page  and  in  the  resolution  of  the  corporation  of  the  Second  Church 
calling  for  its  publication,  as  Ashbald  Green. 

4.  The  region  of  New  York  around  the  Cayuga  and  Seneca  Lakes 
was  named  sixty  years  since,  "the  north-western  frontiers"  of  our 
Church.  In  1798  Mr.  George  Scott,  of  the  Presbytery  of  New  Bruns- 
wick, was  sent  to  that  region  to  "itinerate  for  at  least  five  months  as  a 
missioner."  The  minutes  of  1805  contain  an  interesting  historical  docu- 
ment in  a  "general  report  concerning  those  districts  within  the  juris- 
diction of  the  Synod  of  New  York  and  New  Jersey  which  most  par- 
ticularly require  the  labors  of  missionaries  and  the  distribution  of  pious 
tracts  among  the  people." 

5.  The  Academy  was  in  Academy  street  on  the  ground  now  (1912) 
occupied  by  the  Public  Library.  See  the  History  of  the  Academy 
written  by  Dr.  Hall  in  the  State  Gazette,  April  and  May,  1847,  ten  num- 
bers. Also,  "An  Historical  Sketch  of  the  Trenton  Academy"  read  at 
the  centennial  anniversary  of  its  foundation,  February  loth,  1881,  by 
Hon.  William  L.  Dayton. 

6.  Sedgwick's  Life  of  Livingston,  ch.  vii.,  viii.  The  Legislature  (Dec. 
9>  '^777 >)  exempted  Mr.  Collins  "and  any  number  of  men,  not  exceeding 
four,  to  be  employed  by  him  at  his  printing  office,"  from  militia  service 
during  the  time  they  were  occupied  in  printing  the  laws  or  the  weekly 
newspaper.  The  pacific  but  courageous  printer  vindicated  the  liberty  of 
the  press  by  refusing  to  give  the  name  of  a  political  correspondent 
(1779)  on  the  demand  of  the  Legislative  Council.  "In  any  other  case, 
not  incompatible  with  good  conscience,  or  the  welfare  of  my  country,  I 
shall  think  myself  happy  in  having  it  in  my  power  to  oblige  you." 
{Selections  from  Correspondence  of  Executive,  1776-86,  published  by 
Legislature  in  1848,  p.  199.) 


346 


APPENDIX. 


7.  The  American  historiographer  of  printing  makes  no  mention  of 
this  edition  but  speaks  only  of  Collins's  octavo  New  Testament  of  1788, 
and  Bible  of  1793-4.  {Thomas's  History,  ii.,  124.)  Collins  printed  in 
Trenton  two  thousand  copies  of  Sewel's  History  of  the  Quakers,  of 
nearly  a  thousand  pages  folio ;  Ramsay's  South  Carolina,  two  volumes, 
and  other  large  works. 

In  1848  the  surviving  family  of  Mr.  Collins  printed  for  private  use  a 
memoir  of  their  venerated  parents,  for  the  help  of  which  I  am  indebted 
to  my  friend  Isaac  Collins,  of  Philadelphia.  See  also  Blake's  Bio- 
graphical Dictionary,  i^th  edition. 

I  find  in  a  Philadelphia  newspaper,  Sept.,  1867,  notice  of  the  death 
of  a  son  of  Mr.  Collins,  as  follows : 

"Joseph  B.  Collins,  President  of  the  United  States  Life  Insurance 
Company,  died  yesterday  morning  at  his  residence  in  Eleventh  St.,  in 
the  74th  year  of  his  age.  He  was  born  in  Trenton,  N.  J.,  where  his 
family  have  dwelt  nearly  two  centuries.  His  father,  Isaac  Collins,  was 
the  founder  of  the  noted  publishing  house  of  Collins  and  Co.,  whose 
books  were  once  reckoned  among  the  standard  publications  of  the 
country  and  are  still  regarded  by  our  old  families  as  precious  heir- 
looms." 


APPENDIX.  347 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

1.  "In  the  graveyard  at  Cape  May  Court  House,  N.  J.,  there  is  a 
tombstone  to  the  memory  of  Sarah  Hand,  widow  of  Jonathan  Hand, 
born  at  Trenton,  N.  J.,  July  22,  1778,  died  April  3,  1871.  This  lady 
was  daughter  of  Nathaniel  Moore,  of  Trenton,  and  in  her  eleventh 
year,  with  several  other  little  misses,  strewed  flowers  in  the  path- 
way of  General  Washington  at  Trenton,  in  1789."  "Pennsylvania 
Historical  Society  Magazine,"  vol.  i.,  473. 

Another  of  the  party  was  Mrs.  Sarah  Vandegrift  (then  Miss  ), 

who  died  November  30,  1864,  in  her  ninety-fifth  year,  for  forty-eight 
years  a  member  of  this  church.  Irving  says  of  the  incident  at  Tren- 
ton :  "We  question  whether  any  of  these  testimonials  of  a  nation's 
gratitude  affected  Washington  more  sensibly  than  those  he  received 
at   Trenton." 

2.  Among  the  sermons  left  by  Mr.  Armstrong  is  the  one  used  at  the 
ordination  of  Finley  (the  Colonizationist)  and  Hunt.  The  subject  is 
Ministerial  Zeal,  and  the  sermon  was  used  on  more  than  one  occa- 
sion. One  of  the  leaves  has  this  endorsement :  "First  page  of  the 
sermon  preached  at  the  Mr.  F.  and  Mr.  Hunt's  ordination  in  1795." 
It  was  again  used,  in  part,  at  the  ordination  and  instalment  of 
George  Spafford  Woodhull,  at  Cranbury,  June  6,  1798.  Mr.  Arm- 
strong said  to  the  new  minister :  "You  have  succeeded  two  pastors, 
both  lately,  suddenly  and  unexpectedly  called  away  by  death,  men  of 
upright  hearts  and  irreproachable  lives.  The  memory  of  a  Smith, 
whose  accents  were  those  of  gentleness  and  love;  the  memory  of  a 
Snowden,  who  was  all  zeal  and  activity;  these  yet  live  in  the  hearts 
of  a  people  who  esteemed  them  highly  for  their  works'  sake."  Thomas 
Smith,  pastor  of  Cranbury,  died  in  1789,  and  Gilbert  T.  Snowden,. 
February  20,  1797. 

There  was  a  coincidence  of  names  about  that  time.  Dr.  Samuel 
Stanhope  Smith  being  in  the  Princeton  pulpit,  as  President  of  the 
College,  and  Samuel  Finley  Snowden,  brother  of  Gilbert,  as  pastor 
of  the  Princeton  congregation   (1795-1802). 

Mr.  Armstrong  gave  the  charge  at  the  ordination  of  Cyrus  Gilder- 
sleeve,  as  evangelist,  at  Trenton,  September  9,  1792,  and  preached  at 
the  instalment  of  Henry  Kollock,  in  Princeton,  June  12,  1804.  He 
was  appointed  to  preside  and  preach  at  Rev.  Thomas  Grant's  instal- 
ment at  Amwell  Second  Church,  December  15,  1791,  but  was  prevented 
from  fulfilling  the  service  by  absence.  Mr.  Grant  was  the  pastor  of 
Flemington  in  1794,  when  Mr.  Armstrong  preached  at  the  opening 
of  the  new  church,  as  mentioned  on  page  203.  Mr.  Grant  died  in 
March,   181 1,  and  in  a  sermon  at  the  time,  Mr.  Armstrong  spoke  of 


348 


APPENDIX. 


"being  early  and  long  intimately  acquainted  with  him  and  enjoying  his 
friendship  from  his  entrance  into  the  ministry  to  his  death." 

3.  To  the  instances  of  Mr.  Armstrong's  character  as  a  philanthropist 
may  be  added  a  sentence  incidentally  dropped  in  a  sermon  referring 
to  prisoners  condemned  to  death :  "I  have  more  than  once  in  my  life 
been  instrumental  in  procuring  pardon  for  persons  in  such  a  situa- 
tion." 

The  prevalence  of  the  yellow  fever  in  Philadelphia,  at  the  close  of 
the  last  century,  gave  occasion  for  many  efforts  of  the  Trenton  pastor 
to  call  attention  to  its  warnings.  In  one  sermon  (on  Isaiah  9:  12,  26: 
9,  Micah  6:9)  he  said  he  would  not  presume  to  call  that  pestilence 
a  judgment  for  special  sins,  "yet  there  is  one  thing  I  beg  leave  to 
mention.  In  all  my  recollection  I  do  not  remember  to  have  read  or 
heard  that  ever  the  Saviour  of  sinners  was  insulted  in  a  public  news- 
paper, except  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  not  long  since." 

It  appears  from  Matthew  Carey's  "Short  Account  of  the  Maloignant 
Fever  lately  prevalent  in  Philadelphia,"  fourth  edition,  1794,  that  the 
people  of  our  town  and  neighborhood  were  much  alarmed  by  the 
danger  of  persons  flying  from  the  city  in  this  direction  He  says: 
"The  inhabitants  of  Trenton  and  Lamberton  associated  on  the  13th 
of  September  and  on  the  17th  passed  several  resolutions  to  guard 
themselves  against  the  contagion.  They  resolved  that  'a  total  stop 
should  be  put  to  the  landing  of  all  persons  from  Philadelphia  at  any 
ferry  or  place  from  Lamberton  to  Howell's  ferry,  four  miles  above 
Trenton ;  that  the  intercourse  by  water  should  be  prohibited  between 
Lamberton,  or  the  head  of  tide-water  and  Philadelphia;  and  that  all 
Taoats  from  Philadelphia  should  be  prevented  from  landing  either 
goods  or  passengers  anywhere  between  Bordentown  and  the  head  of 
tide-water ;  that  no  person  whatever  should  be  permitted  to  come  from 
Philadelphia  or  Kensington  while  the  fever  continued ;  that  all  per- 
sons who  should  go  from  within  the  limits  of  the  association  to  either 
of  those  places  should  be  prevented  from  returning  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  fever ;  and  finally,  that  their  standing  committee  should 
inquire  whether  any  persons,  not  inhabitants,  who  had  lately  come 
from  places  infected,  and  were  therefore  likely  to  be  infected  them- 
selves, were  within  the  limits  of  the  association,  and  if  so.  that  they 
should  be  obliged  instantly  to  leave  the  said  Hmits.' "  Mr.  Carey 
gave  his  opinion  "that  the  exercise  of  the  duties  of  humanity  towards 
the  fugitive  Philadelphian  would  not  have  been  attended  with  the 
danger  universally  imagined,"  as  although,  "in  defiance  of  all  resolu- 
tions, many  of  the  infected  citizens  took  refuge  outside  the  city,  in 
very  few  instanced  cases  was  the  infection  communicated."  He  after- 
wards modified  this  opinion  upon  hearing  of  several  cases  by  communi- 
cation; among  them  "three  people,  of  one  family  in  Trenton,  took  it 
from  a  sick  person  from  Philadelphia,  and  died  of  it." 


APPENDIX.  349 

4.  "Ordered,  that  Mr.  Armstrong,  Mr.  Singer,  and  Mr.  Taylor  work 
the  large  engine  in  time  of  fire,  and  that  Conrad  Kotts  and  Isaac 
Barnes  work  the  small  engine."  "Ordered,  that  Mr.  Armstrong  and 
Mr.  Taylor  be  a  committee  to  have  good  trail  ropes  put  to  both 
engines,  and  a  necessary  harness  for  one  horse  for  the  large  engine." 
The  members  being  at  one  time  required  to  give  account  whether 
they  had  done  their  duty,  it  is  entered  that  "Mr.  Armstrong,  ladder- 
man  No.  I,  attended,  and  brought  forward  his  ladder  and  hook  to 
the  late  fire." 

5.  I  have  looked  in  vain  for  the  New  Brunswick  history  in  the 
archives  of  the  Assembly. 

6.  In  an  interleaved  almanac  of  1794,  I  find  a  memorandum  of  Rev. 
Mr.  Weems'  preaching  in  the  evening  in  the  Presbyterian  church. 
This  was  the  author  of  the  poor  but  widespread  "Life  of  Washing- 
ton." I  have  a  poem  of  his  with  his  autograph,  "Mrs.  Frazer,  from 
M.  L.  Weems."  Mrs.  Frazer  was  the  wife  of  the  rector  of  St. 
Michael's  Episcopal  Church. 

7.  The  result  of  the  experience  of  such  uses  of  the  Church  as  are 
related  on  this  and  other  pages,  was  given  by  Mr.  Armstrong  in  his 
sermon  at  the  opening  of  the  new  church  in  1806.  The  position  taken 
by  him  in  the  annexed  paragraph  is  now  an  established  rule  of  our 
Trustees.  "I  know,"  said  the  preacher,  "that  superstition  has  often 
conferred  upon  churches  a  degree  of  sanctity  which  can  only  belong 
to  the  object  of  all  religious  worship.  But  I  know  also  that  in  the 
attempt  to  wipe  out  this  vestige  of  superstition,  too  many  have  swept 
away  with  it  that  respect  and  veneration  which  we  ought  to  cultivate 
for  places  where  God  has  promised  his  presence  to  his  people.  The  use 
of  churches,  for  purposes  not  immediately  connected  with  religious 
exercises,  though  innocent  in  itself,  must  have  a  tendency  to  weaken 
our  respect  and  veneration  for  them.  Civil,  political,  or  literary  scenes 
and  exhibitions,  mingled  at  intervals,  though  not  on  the  Lord's  day. 
will  more  or  less  weaken  a  sense  of  that  seriousness  and  solemnity 
which  is  associated  with  a  house  set  apart  for  the  worship  of  God. 
Nothing,  therefore,  but  urgent  unavoidable  necessity  should  open  the 
doors  of  our  sanctuaries  for  exercises  which  are  not  immediately 
subservient  to  the  purposes  of  religion  or  devotion." 

8.  At  that  time,  and  for  many  years,  the  custom  obtained  in  Trenton 
of  adorning  the  windows  and  fronts  of  the  houses  on  the  Fourth  of 
July  with  flowers  and  evergreens,  instead  of  the  former  practice  of 
illumination.  It  was  also  a  custom^  to  spend  the  evening  at  the  State 
House,  where  the  usual  entertainments  of  an  evening  party  were  pro- 
vided by  the  ladies. 

9.  The  Rev.  Andrew  Hunter,  D.  D.  (already  mentioned  on  p.  204), 
was  a  personal  friend,  and  in  the  pulpit  a  frequent  assistant,  of  Mr. 


350  APPENDIX. 

Armstrong.  He  graduated  at  Princeton,  1772;  was  chaplain  in  the 
Revolutionary  army;  taught  a  classical  school  at  Woodbury;  cultivated 
a  farm  on  the  Delaware  near  Trenton ;  was  professor  of  Mathematics 
and  Astronomy  in  Princeton,  1804-8;  head  of  an  Academy  in  Borden- 
town,  1809;  afterwards  a  chaplain  in  the  Washington  Navy  Yard,  and 
died  in  Burlington,  February  24,  1823.  His  second  wife  was  Mary, 
a  daughter  of  Richard  Stockton,  signer  of  the  Declaration.  Dr. 
Hunter  had  an  uncle  who  was  also  the  Rev.  Andrew  Hunter,  and  was 
pastor  in  Cumberland  county,  N.  J.  (about  1746-1760).  He  married 
Ann,  a  cousin  of  Richard  Stockton,  the  signer.  He  died  in  1775.  His 
widow  was  buried  in  the  Trenton  church-yard,  October,  1800,  and 
the  funeral  sermon  was  by  President  Smith. 

In  the  Trenton  Bmporium,  March  i,  1823,  "Rev.  Dr.  Andrew  Hunter, 
a  chaplain  in  the  U.  S.  Navy,"  is  among  the  deaths  as  "at  Wash- 
ington." 

For  Andrew  Hunter,  the  uncle,  thirty  years  pastor  at  Greenwich, 
in  Cohansey,  see  Allen  H.  Brown's  "Outline  History  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  in  West  or  South  Jersey,"   Philadelphia,   1869. 

10.  In  this  year  the  national  offices  were  removed  to  Trenton  for  some 
weeks,  in  consequence  of  the  prevalence  of  the  yellow  fever  in  Phila- 
delphia. The  Secretary  of  the  Navy  urged  the  President  (Adams) 
to  follow  his  Cabinet,  remarking  that  "the  officers  are  all  now  at  this 
place,  and  not  badly  accommodated."  The  President  was  reluctant 
to  come.  He  had  written  in  1797  of  the  "painful  experience"  by  which 
he  had  learned  that  Congress  could  not  find  "even  tolerable  accommo- 
dation" here.  However,  he  promised  to  go  by  the  middle  of  October, 
submissively  assuring  his  correspondent,  "I  can  and  will  put  up  with 
my  private  secretary  and  two  domestics  only,  at  the  first  tavern  or 
first  private  house  I  can  find."  He  arrived  on  the  tenth,  and  on  the 
next  day  was  greeted  with  fireworks.  He  found  "the  inhabitants  of 
Trenton  wrought  up  to  a  pitch  of  political  enthusiasm  that  surprised 
him,"  in  the  expectation  that  Louis  XVIII.  would  be  soon  restored 
to  the  throne  of  France.  (Works  of  John  Adams,  vols,  ii.,  vii.,  ix.) 
Adams  had  at  this  time  a  conference  of  six  days  with  Hamilton  and 
other  members  of  his  Cabinet  before  they  could  agree  on  the  French 
business.     {Randall's  Life  of  Jefferson,  vol.  ii.,  496-8.) 

11.  Three  columns  of  the  True  American,  of  Trenton,  for  Novem- 
ber 23,  1807,  are  filled  with  the  Presbytery's  petition  to  the  Legislature 
of  that  year,  in  which  the  two  objections  to  former  applications  are 
ably  met,  namely,  that  the  incorporation  would  endanger  civil  liberty, 
and  that  it  would  be  granting  an  exclusive  privilege.  The  political 
prejudice  of  the  times  had  probably  more  to  do  with  the  refusal  than 
these  pleas.  The  democratic  newspapers  of  the  day  contain  many 
bitter  articles  against  the  Presbyterian  clergy,  who  were  generally 
Washington  Federalists.  Among  other  delinquencies  they  were  charged 
with  omitting  to  pray  for  President  Jefiferson.  In  February,  1813,  the 
Presbytery  received  a  charter  for  ten  years. 


APPENDIX.  351 

12.  Travels  in  1795-7,  vol.  i.,  549.  In  April,  1795,  Peter  Howell  ad- 
vertised a  "two-horse  coachee"  to  leave  Trenton  for  Philadelphia  every 
Wednesday  and  Saturday,  at  eleven  o'clock.  Fare  for  a  passenger, 
12S.  6d.;    fourteen  pounds  of  baggage  allowed. 

13.  Travels  of  Francois  Andre  Michaux.  By  act  of  March  3,  1786, 
the  Legislature  granted  Andre,  the  traveler's  father,  permission  to  hold 
land,  not  exceeding  two  hundred  acres,  in  any  part  of  the  State  for  a 
botanical  garden.  There  is  a  Memoir  of  Francois  (who  was  the  author 
of  the  "North  American  Sylva")  in  the  Transactions  of  the  American 
Philosophical  Society,  vol.  xi.  Three  years  before  the  above-mentioned 
act,  the  French  Consul  for  New  Jersey  offered  in  the  King's  name  all 
kinds  of  seeds  whenever  a  botanical  garden  should  be  established.  The 
Legislature  (Dec.  10,  1783)  made  the  ingenious  reply  that  as  soon  as 
they  established  such  a  garden  they  should  be  glad  to  receive  the  seeds. 

14.  Moreau's  mansion  was  burnt  down  on  Christmas  day,  181 1.  The 
stable  is  now  a  manufactory.  Upon  his  first  arrival  the  General  resided 
"at  the  seat  of  Mr.  Le  Guen  at  Morrisville."  By  virtue  of  an  act  of 
Legislature  (March  5,  1816)  the  estate  of  one  hundred  and  five  acres 
was  sold  by  Moreau's  executor,  three  years  after  his  fall  at  Dresden. 

15.  In  connection  with  this  matter  the  following  advertisement  ap- 
peared in  a  Trenton  paper  of  1855-6,  and  Dr.  Hall  made  deposition  as 
to  the  existence  of  (no  record  of  marriage,)   for  the  writ  in  chancery: 

"Frances  Mary  Shard — next  of  kin.  Pursuant  to  an  order  of  the 
High  Court  of  Chancery  of  England,  made  in  the  matter  of  the  estate 
of  Frances  Mary  Shard  who  died  in  the  year  1819,  and  the  personal 
representatives  of  any  of  such  next  of  kin,  as  may  since  have  died,  are 
by  their  solicitors,  on  or  before  the  15th  day  of  March,  1856,  to  come 
in  and  prove  their  claims  at  the  Chambers  of  the  Right  Honorable  the 
Vice  Chancellor  Sir  Richard  Toun  Kindersley,  No.  3  Stone  buildings, 
Lincoln's  Inn,  London,  or  in  default  thereof  they  will  be  peremptorily 
excluded  the  benefit  of  the  said  order.  Mrs.  Shard  was  the  widow  of 
William  Shard,  Esq.  (who  resided  at  Torbay  House,  Paignton,  in  the 
county  of  Devon,  and  in  Harley  street,  London,  and  died  in  the  year 
1806)  and  was  a  daughter  of  Robert  Rutherford  and  Margaret  his  wife, 
who,  it  is  believed,  were  natives  of  Ireland,  but  who  were  residing  at 
Trenton,  in  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  in  the  United  States  of  America, 
where  the  said  Robert  Rutherford  kept  an  hotel  called  the  'Legonier 
Tavern'  (and  afterwards  the  Black  Horse),  at  the  time  of  the  birth 
of  Mrs.  Shard.  Mrs.  Shard  died  in  the  6oth  year  of  her  age,  at  Torbay 
House." 

16.  Paine  was  in  Philadelphia  in  1777,  when  the  British  were  ap- 
proaching the  city.  "I  stayed  in  the  city  till  Sunday,  having  sent  my 
chest  and  everything  belonging  to  the  Foreign  Committee  to  Trenton 
in  a  shallop."     (He  was  Secretary  of  the  Committee.)    Letter  of  Paine 


352 


APPENDIX. 


to  Dr.   Franklin,   "Pennsylvania  Historical   Society  Magazine,"  vol.  2r 
287,  290,  293. 

17.  In  1789  (May  25)  Mrs.  Washington  slept  at  Trenton  on  her  way 
from  Mt.  Vernon  to  New  York.  See  Griswold's  "Republican  Court," 
163. 


APPENDIX.  353 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

1.  It  appears  that  some  assistance  in  building  the  new  church  was 
obtained  outside  of  Trenton.  Mr.  Armstrong  left  a  "memorandum  of 
sundry  persons  who  subscribed  in  New  York,  etc.,  towards  the  finish- 
ing of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  Trenton,  February,  1806."  It  is 
headed  "Rev.  Dr.  Rodgers,  $10;  Col.  Rutgers,  $20;  Mr.  Edgar,  $20." 
In  the  list  that  follows  are  the  well-known  names  of  Robert  Lenox, 
J.  B.  Rodgers,  M.D.,  Arch'd  Gracie,  D.  Bruce,  John  J.  Astor,  Maturin 
Livingston  and  Dr.  Livingston  (brothers  of  Mrs.  Armstrong).  D. 
Phoenix,  Dr.  Miller,  Bishop  Moore,  Col.  Wolcott,  etc.  Total,  $369.31; 
and  Newark,  $136  —  $505.31. 

2.  From  the  Trenton  "Federalist"  of  Monday,  August  11,  1806: 
"Notice.     Divine  service  will  be  performed  for  the  first  time  in  the 

new  Presbyterian  Church  in  this  place,  next  Lord's  day.  Service  will 
begin  at  eleven  o'clock  in  the  forenoon  and  three  in  the  afternoon. 
Collections  will  be  raised  after  each  service,  to  be  appropriated  for  the 
expenditures  incurred   in  finishing  the  house." 

3.  From  a  Trenton  newspaper  of  July  29,  1807 : 

"On  Saturday,  the  twentieth  instant,  was  hung  in  the  steeple  of  the 
New  Presbyterian  Church  in  Trenton,  a  new  bell,  weighing  four  hun- 
dred and  seventy-eight  pounds,  cast  by  George  Hedderly,  bell-founder 
and  bell-hanger  of  the  city  of  Philadelphia,  which  does  its  founder 
much  credit,  both  for  the  neatness  of  its  casting  and  its  melodious 
tone.  "B.    Smith,   "^ 

"P.    Gordon,    ^  Managers." 

4.  Dr.  Ewing's  epitaph,  now  in  Riverview  Cemetery,  is  as  follows : 
"In    memory    of    Francis    Armstrong    Ewing,    M.D.,    who    died    in 

Trenton,  his  native  place,  December  10,  1857,  in  the  52d  year  of  his 
age.  An  accomplished  scholar,  an  intelligent  and  conscientious 
Christian :  tender  in  his  affections :  faithful  in  his  friendship :  his 
character  combined  many  high  and  rare  virtues.  This  church  had  in 
him  a  devoted  Elder  and  firm  adherent." 

5.  The  salary  was  eight  hundred  dollars.  Mr.  Armstrong  was  suc- 
ceeded in  Maidenhead  by  the  Rev.  Isaac  V.  Brown,  at  whose  ordina- 
tion and  installation   (June  10,   1807)   he  gave  both  the  charges. 

6.  Beside  the  gravestone  of  Mr.  Furman  is  that  of  his  wife  Sarah, 
who  died  January  6,  1796,  in  her  53d  year;  and  of  his  daughter,  Anna 
Maria,  widow  of  Gen'l  Peter  Hunt,  October  8,  1816,  in  her  42d  year, 
and  also  of  her  husband.  Mr.  Furman's  son,  Moore  Furman,  gradu- 
ated at  Princeton  in  1794,  died  at  Lawrenceville,  April  18,  1804. 

24  PRES 


354  APPENDIX. 

Mr.  Furman's  will  is  dated  October  lo,  1806.  It  describes  him  "of 
Lamberton,  in  the  county  of  Burlington."  Witnesses  are  P.  F.  Howell, 
Jas.  P.  Hunt  and  Gershom  Mott.  It  is  proved  April  13,  1808.  He  left 
to  his  son-in-law,  Peter  Hunt,  and  his  wife,  Anna  Maria,  the  estate 
called  Pittstown,  Hunterdon  county,  about  seven  hundred  acres  and  a 
lot  of  limestone  land,  about  half  an  acre,  near  the  North  Branch  of 
the  Raritan. 

I  have  a  MS.  receipt  given  by  Mr.  Furman,  as  follows: 
"Aprill  8th,  1754.     Received  of  Mr.  Nathaniel  Moore  Ten  Shillings 
for  his  Annual  Payment  to  the  Library  Company  of  Trenton. 

"Moore  Furman,  Tr." 

7.  Jonathan  Doan  (now  written  Doane)  having  contracted  to  erect 
a  State  Prison  at  Trenton,  Messrs.  Hunt  and  Furman  (1797)  conveyed 
the  ground  on  which  the  jail  (now  the  arsenal)  was  built.  The 
measurement  was  more  than  eight  and  one-quarter  acres ;  the  con- 
sideration £369  IS. 

I  have  in  my  possession  Mr.  Doan's  receipt  for  the  last  payment  of 
the  contract  alluded  to : 

"Received  Novr  14,  1798,  of  James  Mott,  Treas'r,  four  hundred  and 
seventeen  pounds,  twelve  shillings  and  two  pence,  being  the  balance 
of  the  sum  allowed  to  me  by  an  'act  to  appropriate  a  further  sum  of 
money  for  completing  the  State  Prison,'  passed  November  7,  1798. 

"Jonathan  Doan." 

8.  April  7,  1848.  I  attended  the  funeral  of  Jesse  Roscoe.  He  lived 
in  the  old  house  opposite  the  church  which  Mr.  Fish  bought  (adjoin- 
ing his  house).  He  was  the  grandfather  of  Mrs.  Upton  and  Mrs. 
Miller.  On  March  15,  1879,  Samuel  Roscoe  died,  aged  eighty-four. 
I  was  unable  to  attend  the  funeral 


APPENDIX.  355 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

1.  April  28,  1807,  Mr.  Armstrong  preached  before  Presbytery  at  New 
Brunswick,  from  Hebrews  12 :  10,  and  on  June  10,  gave  charges  to 
pastor  and  people  at  the  ordination  and  installation  of  Isaac  V.  Brown. 

2.  Dr.  Wni.  A.  McDowell's  name  is  first  in  the  catalogue  of  Alumni, 
having  been  licensed  in  1813  by  the  New  Brunswick  Presbytery,  but  he 
had  entered  in  an  advanced  stage  of  his  studies.  The  first  three  students 
were  Wm.  Blair,  John  Covert  and  Henry  Blatchford.  The  Presbytery 
of  April,  1813,  which  sat  in  Trenton,  received  both  Drs.  Green  and 
Alexander,  from  Philadelphia  ;  the  former  having  been  elected  Presi- 
dent of  Princeton   College  in   1812. 

3.  Among  Mr.  Armstrong's  papers  I  found  a  pamphlet  of  six  pages, 
entitled  "A  plan  for  the  Establishment  of  a  Bible  Society  in  the  State 
of  New  Jersey.  New  Brunswick.  Printed  for  the  Committee  by 
Ambrose  Walker."  It  gives  proceedings  "at  a  meeting  of  the  ministers 
of  New  Briuiswick,  with  a  number  of  other  gentlemen,  in  the  city 
of  New  Brunswick,  on  the  4th  day  of  Oct.,  A.  D.  i8og,"  when  "the 
New  Jersey  Bible  Society"  was  formed.  A  contribution  of  three 
dollars  was  to  constitute  a  member  and  one  dollar  annually  was  to  be 
paid  in.  Twenty-five  dollars  would  constitute  a  life  member.  Bibles 
were  to  be  obtained  from  the  Philadelphia  Bible  Society.  Subscribers 
were  to  meet  at  Princeton,  on  the  first  Tuesday  of  December,  to 
choose  managers.  Then  follows  a  list  of  gentlemen  throughout  the 
State  who  were  requested  to  obtain  subscribers  and  donations.  Among 
these  are  Rev.  Dr.  Wharton  and  Isaac  Collins,  of  Burlington ;  Rev. 
Mr.  Armstrong  and  Messrs  Waddell  and  Harris,  of  Trenton;  Dr. 
Smith  and  Samuel  Bayard,  of  Princeton;  Messrs.  Clark  and  Cross, 
of  New  Brunswick;  Rev.  Mr.  Brown  and  Charles  D.  Green,  of  Maiden- 
head; Finley,  of  Basking  Ridge;  Vredenburg,  of  Raritan ;  Cannon,  of 
Six-Mile-Run;  Labach  (gh?),  of  Sourland — worthy  representatives  in 
this  catholic  body,  of  the  Reformed  Dutch,  Presbyterian,  Protestant 
Episcopal  and  Quaker  denominations. 

To  this  was  added  a  leaf  of  signatures  of  subscribers  :  "J.  F.  Arm- 
strong, Gov.  Bloomfield,  B.  Smith,  Peter  Gordon,  A.  Chambers,  Nath'l 
Burrowes,  Jas.  F.  Wilson,  E.  Howell,  Chas.  Higbee,  J.  Oram,  Sam. 
Dickinson,  L.  (Lambert)  Cadwalader,  Henry  Waddell,  Robt.  Mc- 
Neely,  Garret  D.  Wall,  Lucius  H.  Stockton,  A.  D.  Woodruff,  Jas. 
Ewing,  Ogden  Woodruff,  Dr.  Beatty,  Daniel  Fenton,  Saml.  Paxson, 
Geo.   Sherman,  Eliz'th  Stockton,  EHet  Howell." 

The  pamphlet  is  now  in  the  library  of  the  American  Bible  Society. 

4.  In  1809  A^r.  Armstrong-  preached  twice  on  II.  Corinthians.  This 
memorandum  is  on  the  MS. :     "The  last  preached,  June  18,  1S09,  on  a 


3S6  APPENDIX. 

particular  dispensation  of  Divine  Providence, — a  professor  of  religion, 
under  great  fear  of  mind,  having,  as  supposed  by  some,  been  accessory 
to  his  own  death,  tho'  uncertain." 

5.  There  are  MS.  "Notes  for  the  day  of  Fasting,  Humiliation  and 
Prayer  appointed  by  the  General  Assembly,  July  30,  1812,"  and  the 
same  MS.  "for  the  day  of  humiliation  and  prayer  appointed  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  Aug.  20,  1812." 

6.  On  April  7,  1881,  Miss  Mary  Armstrong  (age  93)  gave  me  the 
printed  slip  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy,  which  she  said  was  writ- 
ten by  her  father  on  a  child  of  a  parishioner : 

"an  acrostic 
upon  a  child  born  blind. 

Sovereign  benign,  of  love,  of  life,  of  light ! 
At  whose  command  I'm  born  deprived  of  sight, 
'Midst  darkness  and  'midst  dangers  ever  nigh. 
Unseen  a  father's  face,  a  mother's  watchful  eye. 
Eternal !    who  'midst  darkness  mak'st  the  light  arise. 
Lighten  my  mind,  and  give  me  heavenly  eyes. 

Rise,  Sun  of  Righteousness,  with  feeling  light, 
Oh !   grant  me  Faith's  unerring,  saving  sight ; 
Shine  inward,  that  my  enlight'ned  soul  may  raise 
Eternal  anthems  to  my  Saviour's  praise." 

7.  Mrs.  Armstrong  survived  her  husband  until  February  13,  1851, 
when  she  peacefully  and  triumphantly  departed,  in  the  ninety-third  year 
of  her  age.  I  had  the  privilege  of  the  friendship  of  this  most  estimable 
lady  for  ten  years  after  becoming  pastor  of  the  church,  and  the  dis- 
course delivered  on  the  Sabbath  after  her  funeral  has  been  published 
under  the  title  of  "The  Divine  Promise  to  Old  Age."  One  of  the 
daughters  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Armstrong,  was  the  wife  of  Chief  Justice 
Ewing,  who  died  in  Trenton,  July  4,  1816.  Their  son,  Robert  L.  Arm- 
strong, a  member  of  the  bar  at  Woodbury,  died  in  Trenton,  September 
22,  1836.  Three  unmarried  daughters  long  survived  both  their  parents; 
Frances,  who  died  June  22,  1868,  aged  75  years ;  Susan,  May  18,  1878, 
aged  87;  Mary  Maturin,  March  21,  1882,  aged  94. 

8.  Occoin  was  a  Mohegan  (Connecticut)  Indian,  and  the  first  of  his 
race  educated  by  Dr.  Wheelock  at  Lebanon.  In  1766  he  collected  more 
than  iiooo  in  England  for  the  Wheelock  School.  His  agency  is  men- 
tioned in  the  celebrated  case  of  Dartmouth  College :  Wheaton's  Re- 
ports, vol.  iv.     See  Sprague's  Annals,  vol.  iii.,  192. 

9.  In  1765  the  Supreme  Court  required  lawyers  to  wear  bar-gown 
and  band  as  in  England.  This  was  repealed  in  1791.  "Proceedings  of 
New  Jersey  Historical  Society,"  1862,  vol.  9,  p.  66. 


APPENDIX.  357 

10.  For  Mr.  Dubois's  genealogy,  see  the  "Record  of  the  Family  of 
Louis  DuBois,  who  emigrated  from  France  to  America  in  1660," — only 
150  copies  printed,  i860,  p.  38. 

Mr.  Nicholas  Dubois  bequeathed  $100  to  the  church,  which  was 
realized  on  the  death  of  his  widow  in  1861. 

11.  The  "Narrative"  of  the  General  Assembly  of  181 1  mentions  the 
establishment  of  a  Sabbath-school  for  poor  children  in  New  Brunswick. 

12.  Mr.  Sherrerd  died  at  Belvidere  May  26,  1871,  aged  seventy-seven. 

13.  I  have  since  been  informed  that  Mr.  Probasco  was  a  Baptist.  Rev. 
James  Briggs  Bowen,  another  of  the  first  teachers,  called  on  me  June 
18,  1868.    He  said  he  was  a  Baptist  minister,  settled  in  the  West. 

14.  For  Bishop  Mcllvaine's  account  of  the  first  Sunday-school  in 
Burlington,  see  Hills'  "History  of  the  Burlington  Church,"  p.  393. 

15.  Mary  Ann  Tucker  married  James  Wright  in  1820,  and  died,  his 
widow,  Dec.  14,  1877,  aged  eighty-two.  Mary  A.  Howell  married  John 
R.  Vogdes,  of  Philadelphia.  Catherine  Schenck  married  Wm.  Morse. 
At  her  death  she  bequeathed  $100  to  her  pastor.  Hannah  Hayden  died 
Sept.  21,  1867. 

16.  Miss  Rice  maintained  her  active  interest  in  the  School  until  her 
death  in  May,  1855.  She  served  the  general  cause  as  a  writer.  Two 
of  her  books,  "Alice  and  her  Mother,"  and  "Olive  Smith,"  were  pub- 
lished by  the  American  S.  S.  Union;  three  others,  "Consideration,  or 
the  Golden  Rule,"  "Florence  Patterson,"  and  "Maria  Bradford,"  by  the 
Massachusetts  S.  S.  Society. 

17.  Miss  Jackson's  name  and  Trenton  associations  frequently  occur 
in  the  Memoir  of  Mr.  Sanford,  by  Dr.  Baird,  pp.  28,  63,  66,  86,  97,  118, 
121. 


358 


APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER   XX. 


1.  In  October,  1823,  Dr.  How  became  pastor  of  the  Independent 
Presbyterian  Church  of  Savannah ;  in  1830  President  of  Dickinson 
College ;  and  subsequently  returned  to  New  Brunswick  upon  a  call 
to  take  the  pastoral  charge  of  the  First  Reformed  Dutch  Church  in 
that  city.  He  died  in  New  Brunswick,  March  i,  1868,  having  resigned 
his  pastoral  charge  there  June  14,  1861.  He  received  the  degree  of 
D.D.  from  Union  College  in  1830. 

2.  As  throwing  somewhat  amusing  light  on  the  comfortable  and 
simple  manners  of  the  time,  William  Cobbett's  Journal,  March,  1818, 
says :  "I  am  at  the  stage  tavern,  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  where  I  have 
just  dined  upon  cold  ham,  cold  veal,  butter  and  cheese,  and  a  peach 
pie ;  nice,  clean  room,  well  furnished,  waiter  clean  and  attentive,  plenty 
of  milk ;  and  charged  a  quarter  of  a  dollar.  I  thought  that  Mrs.  Joselin 
(Joline?)  of  Princeton,  Mrs.  Beesler,  at  Harrisburg,  Mr.  vSlaymaker, 
at  Lancaster,  and  Mrs.  McAllister  were  low  enough  in  all  conscience; 
but  really  this  charge  of  Mrs.  Anderson  beats  all.  I  really  had  not 
the  face  to  pay  a  quarter  of  a  dollar,  but  gave  the  waiter  half  a  dollar 
and  told  him  to  keep  the  change." 

3.  So  far  as  known,  there  is  no  record  of  when  or  how  often  he 
preached  in  the  church  before  his  election. 

4.  It  is  pleasant  thus  to  meet  with  names,  now  well  known,  while 
in  the  uncertainties  of  their  novitiate.  Mr.  Armstrong  preached  at 
the  ordination  of  "C.  C.  Beatty,"  in  1822;  and  at  the  same  meeting  of 
Presbytery  trials  were  assigned  to  "Mr.  Albert  Barnes."  "Mr.  Francis 
McFarland"  preached  his  trial  sermon,  and  was  ordained.  "Messrs. 
Robert  Baird  and  John  Breckenridge"  were  licensed. 

5.  Memoir  and  Sermons,  edited  by  Rev.  Hollis  Read,  1853,  pp.  31 
and  104.  A  visitor  in  Trenton  thus  wrote,  November  4,  1822:  "I 
heard  Mr.  Armstrong  preach  a  most  eloquent  sermon  yesterday  morn- 
ing.    He  is  one  of  my  favorites.     At  night  Mr.  L ,  the  Methodist, 

a  very  good  preacher ;  the  coolest  Methodist  I  ever  heard.  The  Tren- 
tonians  say  that  the  Presbyterians  have  got  the  Methodist  preacher, 
and  the  Methodists  the  Presbyterians." 

6.  The  excellent  man  here  referred  to,  was  Mr.  John  Voorhees, 
who  was  admitted  to  the  communion  in  Trenton  in  April,  1822;  and 
elected  a  ruling  elder  in  1829.  He  emphatically  discharged  the  duties 
of  his  office  "well,"  until  the  removal  of  his  residence  to  Washington, 
in  1843,  where  he  died  October  28,  1849. 

Concerning  Mr.  Armstrong's  strong  character,  see  also  Rev.  Dr. 
James  W.  Alexander's  letter  in  "Forty  Years'  Letters,"  vol.  2,  p.  59- 


APPENDIX.  359 

7-  Mr.  Smith  was  born  at  Wethersfield,  Sept.  2,  1797,  licensed  April 
20,  1822,  married  Esther  Mary,  daughter  of  Attorney-General  Aaron 
D.  Woodrufif,  Sept.  11,  1826,  and  died  in  Stamford,  Conn.,  at  the 
house  of  his  son,  James  D.  Smith,  Feb.  20,  1874,  in  his  seventy-sev- 
enth year.  He  was  buried  from  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Stam- 
ford, Feb.  23d. 

8.  George  Whitefleld  Woodruff  was  a  brother  of  Aaron  Dickinson 
Woodruff.  He  died  at  the  family  farm,  near  the  Asylum,  in  1846,  at 
the  age  of  eighty-two.  He  was  an  EpiscopaHan.  See  S.  D.  Alexan- 
der's "Princeton  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  p.  218. 

9.  Gibbs'  Federal  Administrations,  ii.  468.  In  Mr.  Jeremiah  Evart's 
journal  of  April  18,  1827,  he  mentions  a  meeting  in  the  Theological 
Seminary  at  Princeton  on  the  subject  of  Foreign  Missions,  when  Dr. 
Alexander  "was  followed  by  Mr.  Stockton,  a  lawyer  of  Trenton,  who 
spoke  with  great  feeling."     (Tracy's  Life  of  Evarts.) 

10.  Not  many  steps  from  this  monument  are  those  of  two  brothers, 
(Douglass  and  Philip  F.  Howell),  on  one  of  which  it  is  said  that  the 
deceased  "lost  his  Hfe  by  a  fall  from  his  horse"  (1801),  and  on  the 
other  that  the  deceased  was  "thrown  from  his  gig,  and  died  in  a  few 
minutes"   (1833). 

11.  Mr.  Leake's  widow  survived  him  until  March  13,  1843,  when  she 
died  in  her  eighty-ninth  year.  Two  of  their  daughters  long  survived 
both  their  parents  in  the  family  mansion  and  in  the  communion,  Sarah 
dying  Nov.  25,  1858,  an  adult  member  of  the  church  from  May,  1815 ; 
Clara  dying  Jan.  16,  1870,  a  member  of  the  church  from  October,  1815, 
a  period  of  fifty-five  years. 

Dr.  Maclean's  "History  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey"  produces  a 
minute  of  the  Trustees  of  April,  1774,  from  which  it  appears  that  Mr. 
Leake,  whilst  a  Senior,  was  engaged  in  some  pranks  that  were  re- 
garded as  too  disorderly  an  outbreak  of  the  rising  of  the  American 
spirit  of  independence  to  pass  without  censure,  and  hence  they  passed 
a  resolution  that  "the  Board  being  informed  that  the  said  Samuel 
Leake,  notwithstanding  his  conduct,  hath  been  appointed  by  the  Faculty 
to  the  honor  of  the  Salutatory  Oration  at  the  coming  Commencement, 
this  Board  doth  highly  disapprove  of  his  designation  to  that  honor, 
and  do  hereby  vacate  that  choice,  and  direct  the  President  of  the 
College  to  appoint  another  Orator  in  his  room."  Dr.  McLean's  com- 
ment on  the  proceeding  is  that  the  Faculty  sympathized,  to  some  ex- 
tent at  least,  with  their  pupils  in  the  patriotic  demonstration  they  had 
made,  and  were  not  willing  to  deprive  young  Leake  of  his  claim  to  a 
position  at  the  Commencement,  as  "the  first  scholar  in  his  depart- 
ment." 

There  was  another  Samuel  Leake,  a  native  of  Virginia,  in  the  Prince- 
ton class  of  1764,  a  Presbyterian  minister  in  Albemarle  county. 


360  APPENDIX. 

12.  Major  Beatty  is  mentioned  by  Washington  in  a  letter  of  May, 
1788,  and  there  are  letters  from  the  Commander-in-Chief  to  him,  of 
1779,  in  Sparks's  Writings  of  Washington,  v.,  393;  vi.,  295,  351. 

13.  The  foundation  stone  of  the  first  pier  was  laid  by  General  Beatty, 
May  21,  1804,  and  on  the  thirtieth  January,  1806,  the  completion  of  the 
bridge  was  formally  celebrated  with  a  procession,  an  address  by  the 
President,  and  a  dinner.  The  Duke  of  Saxe-Weimar  (1825)  was 
"sorry  for  the  great  hurry"  in  which  he  had  to  take  the  boat  for  Phil- 
adelphia, "because  I  should  have  liked  to  have  examined  Trenton ;  it 
is  a  very  handsome  place  *  *  *  There  is,  moveover,  at  Trenton  a 
remarkable  bridge  crossing  the  Delaware.  It  consists  of  five  great 
suspended  wooden  arches,  which  rest  upon  two  stone  abutments  and 
three  stone  piers.  The  difference  between  this  bridge  and  others  con- 
sists in  this,  that  in  common  bridges  the  road  runs  over  the  tangent, 
but  in  this  bridge  the  roads  form  the  segment  of  the  arch."  (Travels 
through  North  American,  vol.  i.,  136. 

In  contrast  with  this  description  of  the  bridge,  we  have  this  entry 
in  the  journal  of  the  Rev.  Jeremy  Belknap,  historian,  of  New  Hamp- 
shire, who  in  October,  1785,  visited  his  friend,  Ebenezer  Hazen,  in 
Philadelphia :  "We  passed  through  Princeton  about  noon,  and  got  to^ 
Trenton  to  dinner,  then  passed  the  Delaware  in  another  scow  (the 
first  was  at  New  Brunswick,  'open  at  both  ends  and  the  scow  was 
propelled  across  by  a  rope')  which  was  navigated  only  by  setting^ 
poles."     "Life  of  Jeremy  Belknap,"  Harpers,  New  York,  1847,  p.   115. 

14.  It  appears  from  the  following  letter  from  Gen.  Beatty  to  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Armstrong  that  he  had  declined  a  nomination  for  the  elder- 
ship, in  181 I : 

"BwoMSBURY,  Sat'y  morning,  Oct.  5th,  181 1. 
"Rev.  and  Dear  Sir: 

"The  proposition  of  my  becoming  one  of  the  Ruling  Elders  of  the 
church  at  which  you  preside  has  been  the  subject  of  much  serious 
meditation  through  the  week.  Were  I  to  be  governed  solely  by  the 
opinion  of  other  persons,  the  pride  of  office  so  incident  to  human 
nature  might  have  led  me  to  have  accepted  the  appointment.  But  as 
often  as  I  came  to  commune  with  my  own  heart,  and  to  view  the 
little  progress  it  had  made  in  the  Divine  life,  and  especially  its  de- 
ficiency in  those  attainments,  gifts  and  graces  which  would  qualify 
me  to  fulfil  the  high  and  responsible  duties  which  attach  to  the  office 
of  an  Elder  (who  ought  to  walk  as  a  light  in  the  church,  in  all  things 
adorning  the  doctrine  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ)  I  felt 
abased  and  discouraged.  Believing,  then,  as  I  sincerely  do,  my  un- 
worthiness  as  well  as  unfitness  to  minister  in  holy  things,  I  cannot 
reconcile  it  with  my  duty  to  enter  on  the  appointment,  even  though 
the  nomination  should  meet  the  general  acceptance  of  the  congrega- 
tion.   In  communicating  this  determination  to  the  Session,  I  pray  them. 


APPENDIX.  361 

and  you,  sir,  to  be  assured  that  I  shall  retain  a  grateful  sense  of  this 
distinguished  mark  of  their  attention  towards  me. 
"With  sentiments  of  respect  and  esteem, 

"I  am  your  friend  and  humble  servant, 

"J.  Beatty." 
Fuller   notice   of  the   Beatty   family   may   be    found   in   the   "History 
of    Neshaminy    Presbyterian    Church,"    by    Rev.    Douglas    K.    Turner, 
Philadelphia,   1876. 

15.  "Apres  I'office  divin  que  nous  entendimes  dans  1'  eglise  Presbyte- 
rienne."     Levasseur's  Lafayette  en  I'Amerique. 

On  the  occasion  of  Lafayette's  presence  Mr.  Peter  O.  Studdiford,  of 
Lambertville,  preached.  In  his  prayer  he  said,  "Let  us  remember  that 
we  are  here  to  worship  God  and  God  alone."  Mr.  Tyler  made  one  of 
the  prayers. 

The  following  is  from  an  article  by  Dr.  Coleman  in  the  Trenton 
"Public  Opinion,"  February  14,  1874 : 

"Sunday  morning  the  General  attended  Presbyterian  Church  in 
Market  street,  now  State  street.  The  minister  at  that  time  was 
William  J.  Armstrong,  a  thin,  bilious,  nervous  and  energetic  man. 
He  was  a  good  preacher,  and  his  wife  was  an  estimable  lady.  She 
was  a  Stockton,  daughter  of  Lucius  Horatio  Stockton,  Esq.,  whose 
position — " 

"May  I  ask  friend  Pepys  what  that  has  to  do  with  Lafayette?"  said 
Clunn.     "True,  very  true,  nothing,"  replied  Pepys. 

16.  It  may  have  been  a  revival  of  this  scheme  that  was  contemplated 
in  November,  1814,  when  a  public  meeting  was  called  to  form  an 
association  "to  supply  the  town  with  fire-wood  by  water." 

17.  The  remains  of  Judge  Ewing  have  been  removed  from  the 
church-yard  to  Riverview  Cemetery,  and  the  grave  is  designated  by 
this   inscription: 

"In  memory  of  James  Ewing,  Esq.,  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Com- 
mon Pleas  of  the  County  of  Hunterdon.  Born  at  Greenwich  in  the 
county  of  Cumberland,  the  12th  of  July,  A.  D.  1744  (O.  S.).  Died 
at  Trenton  the  i6th  day  of  October,  A.  D.  1823." 


362  APPENDIX. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


1.  The  ruling  elders  during  Mr.  Alexander's  term  were:  i. 
Nathaniel  Burro wes;  first  an  elder  in  Pennington,  and  received  into 
the  Trenton  session  December  24,  1815.  His  monument  is  inscribed: 
"A  memorial  of  Nathaniel  Burrowes,  who  died  January  29,  1839,  aged 
seventy-one  years.  An  elder  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  for  forty 
years."  2.  Robert  McNeely,  who  came  to  Trenton  in  1791,  was 
ordained  to  the  eldership  1817;  died  January  27,  1852,  in  his  eighty- 
fifth  year.  He  was  for  eighteen  successive  years  annually  elected 
Mayor  of  Trenton.  3.  John  VoorhEEs,  who  is  mentioned  in  the  pre- 
ceding chapter.  4.  SamuEl  BrEareEy,  elected  with  Mr.  Voorhees  in 
1829,  and  died  May  27,   1848. 

Mr.  McNeely  was  Presidential  elector  in  1817.  See  an  article 
respecting  him  in  "Beecher's  Magazine,"  Trenton,  vol.  i.,  1870.  Mr. 
McNeely  was  born  in  Bucks  county,  Pennsylvania,  not  far  from  the 
site  of  the  "Log  College,"  February  23,  1767. 

2.  Dr.  Alexander  did  not  live  to  see  this  History.  When  he  wrote 
the  letter  of  February,  1859,  he  was  pastor  of  the  congregation  whose 
church  stood  at  the  corner  of  Fifth  avenue  and  Nineteenth  street, 
New  York,  now  Fifth  avenue  and  Fifty-fifth  street.  Soon  after- 
wards his  declining  health  led  him  to  try  the  climate  of  Virginia,  and 
he  died  at  the  Red  Sweet  Springs,  July  31,  1859,  in  the  s6th  year  of 
his  age. 

3.  Mr.  Yeomans  was  licensed  while  a  tutor  at  Williams  College, 
October,  1826,  by  the  Berkshire  Association,  and  was  pastor  at  Pitts- 
field  in  the  spring  of   1831. 

4.  The  preceding  structures  stood  upon  the  western  part  of  the 
church  lot.  The  present  one  was  placed  in  the  central  part.  The 
dimensions  are  one  hundred  and  four  feet  length ;  sixty-two  feet 
breadth ;  steeple  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet.  Dr.  Yeomans'  dedica- 
tion sermon,  was  published.  For  the  very  accurate  and  artistic  sketch 
of  the  church  from  which  the  frontispiece  was  engraved,  I  am  indebted 
to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  J.  Fletcher  Street,  of  the  Normal  School. 

In  the  "Emporium"  and  "True  American,"  of  January  18,  1839,  is 
a  "Notice  to  Builders,"  for  proposals  for  the  erection  of  the  new 
church,  signed  by  Messrs.  B.  Fish,  T.  J.  Stryker,  Armitage  Green, 
C.  Blackfan,  J.  S.  Scudder,  and  S.  Evans,  Building  Committee. 

In  the  same,  August  23,  1839,  is  an  advertisement  of  a  fair  to  be 
held  in  the  City  Hall,  September  3,  "to  raise  a  fund  for  the  purchase 
of  furniture   for  the  church." 

On  January  3,   1840,  there  is  a  notice  that  "Pews  will  be  sold  on 


APPENDIX.  363 

January  13.  The  church  will  be  dedicated  on  the  19th.  S.  G.  Potts, 
Chairman    of   the    General    Committee." 

The  text  of  Dr.  Yeomans'  dedication  discourse  was  Psalms  65 :  4, 
"Blessed  is  the  man  whom  thou  choosest,  and  causest  to  approach 
unto  thee,  that  he  may  dwell  in  thy  courts :  he  shall  be  satisfied  with 
the  goodness  of  thy  house,  even  of  thy  holy  temple." 

The  people  were  slow  in  giving  their  consent  to  introduce  an  organ 
into  the  public  worship  of  the  new  church.  Much  of  the  success  in 
securing  this  innovation  is  due  to  the  influence  of  Elder  Francis  A. 
Ewing,  and  to  the  ingenious  manner  in  which,  by  his  own  playing  on 
the  instrument,  he  confined  its  use  to  a  quiet  accompaniment  of  the 
voice,  without  interlude  or  flourish.  The  reconciliation  of  the  scruples 
of  some  of  the  worshippers  became  so  entire,  by  habit,  that  in  1871  the 
first  organ  was  superseded  by  a  larger  one,  with  a  paid  organist  and 
choir. 

5.  The  elders  were  James  Polwck,  Aaron  A.  Hutchinson,  and 
Francis  A.  Ewing,  M.D.  The  deacons  were  John  A.  Hutchinson, 
Benjamin  S.  Disbrow,  and  Joseph  G.  Brearley. 

In  the  year  1836  Thomas  J.  Stryker  and  Stacy  G.  Potts  were 
elected  and  ordained  elders. 

6.  "I  preached  in  the  church"  says  Mr.  Webster  in  a  letter  written  at 
my  request,  "in  the  morning  and  evening;  in  the  afternoon  attended 
the  Sabbath-school.  Once  a  month  I  took  my  turn  of  preaching  in  the 
State  prison  and  visiting  the  cells.  One  evening  in  the  week  I  lectured 
at  private  houses  in  Bloomsbury,  Lamberton,  or  Mill  Hill,  and  occa- 
sionally at  Morrisville  (on  the  Pennsylvania  side  of  the  Delaware)  in 
the  afternoon." 

Mr.  Webster  died  at  Middletown  Point,  N.  J.,  December  28,  1862,  in 
his  seventieth  year. 

7.  The  total  additions  to  the  communion  in  Dr.  Yeomans'  pastorate 
were  seventy-two  on  examination,  eighty-five  on  certificate.  Dr.  Yeo- 
mans died  in  Danville,  Pa.,  June  22,  1863. 

8.  The  substance  of  the  sermon  (on  "the  pastoral  office")  appeared 
in  the  Biblical  Repertory  for  January,  1842. 

9.  I  insert  with  great  satisfaction  a  paragraph  from  a  letter  of  Dr. 
Yeomans,  of  August  15,  1859,  after  the  publication  of  the  "History": 

"There  was  one  little  item  in  the  history  of  the  transition  of  the 
church  from  my  pastoral  care  to  yours  which  is  of  a  kind  so  unusual 
and  in  itself  so  interesting  as  to  be  worthy  of  notice.  It  was  the  fact 
that  your  ministry  there  began  on  the  Sabbath  after  the  termination  of 
mine,  so  that  the  congregation  was  not  without  a  virtual  pastor  any 
Sabbath  and  the  pulpit  was  not  declared  vacant." 


364  APPENDIX. 

10.  Dr.  Belleville  was  in  Paris  in  1774  when  Louis  XVI.  came  to  the 
throne  and  used  to  tell  of  his  hearing  the  populace  cry,  (in  allusion  to 
the  tradition  of  Henry  IVth's  wish  that  every  peasant  might  have  a 
fowl  for  his  pot-pie,)   "Poide-au-pot!  poule-au-pot!" 

11.  There  is  also  an  extended  notice  of  his  character  in  an  address 
by  Lucius  H.  Stockton,  published  in  the  New  Jersey  Gazette,  Sept.  15, 
1832.  For  further  matter  concerning  the  life  of  Chief  Justice  Ewing, 
see  "Life  of  Dr.  Miller,"  ii.,  168-171. 

12.  An  obituary  notice  of  Dr.  Allison  is  in  the  Trenton  Emporium, 
February  24,  1827.  He  was  born  in  Bordentown,  Aug.  19,  1753,  was 
educated  under  Dr.  Samuel  Jones  of  Lower  Dublin,  Pa.,  and  received 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Brown  University,  in  1804.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society  and  for  some  time 
its  secretary.    He  was  for  four  years  chaplain  to  Congress. 


APPENDIX  II. 


History  of  the  Proposal  to  Make  Trenton  the  Capital  of  the 
United  States. 


In  the  notice  of  Doctor  Cowell's  will,  on  page  292,  it  was  stated 
that  one  of  his  legacies  was  to  the  United  States,  in  case  Congress 
should  make  Lamberton — then  a  precinct  of  Trenton — the  seat  of 
the  National  Government.  Although  this  gives  the  subject  a  very 
slender  connection  with  the  title  of  this  volume,  I  depend  on  the 
local  interest  it  possesses,  to  make  acceptable  what  I  have  digested 
from  the  Journals  of  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation. 

The  Congresses  before  the  Constitution  held  their  sessions  in 
different  places,  but  principally  in  Philadelphia  and  New  York. 
In  June,  1783,  preparation  was  begun  to  select  what  was  called  a 
"permanent  residence"  for  Congress,  by  appointing  the  first  Monday 
of  the  following  October,  to  take  into  consideration  such  offers  as 
might  be  made  from  the  places  that  aspired  to  that  distinction.  In 
the  same  month  in  which  the  resolution  was  passed  by  Congress,  the 
Legislature  of  New  Jersey  agreed  to  offer  to  yield  to  the  United 
States,  jurisdiction  over  any  district  to  the  extent  of  twenty  miles 
square,  and  to  grant  £30,000  in  specie  for  the  purchase  of  lands  and 
the  erection  of  buildings. 

On  the  sixth  of  October,  1783,  the  question  was  taken,  "In  which 
State  buildings  shall  be  provided  and  erected  for  the  residence  of 
Congress ;  beginning  with  New  Hampshire,  and  proceeding  in  the 
order  in  which  they  stand."  Upon  this  vote  all  the  States  were  suc- 
cessively negatived.  On  the  next  day  a  motion  was  made  by  Mr. 
Gerry,  "That  buildings  for  the  use  of  Congress  be  erected  on  the 
Taanks  of  the  Delaware,  near  Trenton,  or  of  the  Potomac  near  George- 
town, provided  a  suitable  district  can  be  procured  on  one  of  the  rivers 
aforesaid,  for  a  federal  town."  By  amendment  the  names  of  the  towns 
were  stricken  out,  and  the  rivers  left ;  and  it  was  finally  resolved  on 
that  day,  first,  that  the  federal  town  should  be  erected  on  the  banks 
of  the  Delaware;  and  then,  that  the  site  should  be  "near  the  falls," 
that  is,  near  Trenton  on  the  New  Jersey  side,  or  in  Pennsylvania 
on  the  opposite.  A  committee  of  five  was  appointed  to  view  the  re- 
spective situations,  and  report. 

The    question    of   locality   now    became    a    subject    of   agitation    be- 

(365) 


366  APPENDIX. 

tween  the  North  and  the  South.  On  the  day  after  the  appointment 
of  the  Committee,  a  motion  was  made  to  reconsider  the  proceedings, 
"in  order  to  fix  on  some  other  place  that  shall  be  more  central,  more 
favorable  to  the  Union,  and  shall  approach  nearer  to  that  justice  which 
is  due  to  the  Southern  States."  This  failed.  On  the  tenth,  a  motion 
of  Mr.  Williamson,  of  North  Carolina,  was  unsuccessful,  which  pro- 
posed that  the  present  Congress  (then  in  session  at  Princeton)  should 
adjourn  at  once  to  Philadelphia,  sit  there  till  June,  and  then  adjourn 
to  Trenton.  A  motion  of  Mr.  Duane,  of  New  York,  also  failed,  which 
called  for  an  immediate  adjournment  to  Trenton.  On  the  eleventh, 
Mr.  Ellery,  of  Rhode  Island,  moved  for  an  adjournment  to  Annapolis 
till  June,  and  then  to  meet  at  Trenton.  The  latter  clause  was  stricken 
out,  and  the  words,  "for  the  place  of  their  temporary  residence,"  were 
joined  to  "Annapolis ;"  but  the  amended  motion  was  lost* 

The  selection  of  Trenton,  or  its  immediate  vicinity,  seemed  now 
to  be  most  probable ;  but  the  minority  against  the  Delaware  loca- 
tion was  so  large  and  influential,  that  Mr.  Gerry  proposed  as  a 
compromise  that  Congress  should  have  two  residences,  to  be  occu- 
pied alternately;  the  one  to  be  on  the  Delaware,  as  already  deter- 
mined, and  the  other  on  the  Potomac,  at  or  near  Georgetown.  On 
the  twentieth,  Mr.  Gerry  further  proposed,  that  until  the  buildings  on 
the  Delaware  and  Potomac  were  prepared,  the  residence  of  Congress 
should  be  alternately  in  Trenton  and  Annapolis.  On  the  twenty-first, 
Mr.  Gerry's  entire  motion  was  adopted.f 

In  December,  1783,  Congress  met  at  Annapolis,  and  the  question 
of  the  Federal  city  was  reopened.  Mr.  Jefferson  and  Mr.  Monroe  en- 
deavored to  have  Alexandria  substituted  for  Georgetown,  as  the 
Southern  capital,  but  Virginia  was  the  only  State  that  voted  aye.J 

Congress  met  in  Trenton,  November  i,  1784.  On  the  tenth  Decem- 
ber, South  Carolina  moved  that:  "It  is  expedient  for  Congress  to 
adjourn  from  their  present  residence."  This  was  negatived  on  the 
eleventh,  and  on  the  twentieth  it  was  resolved  to  take  measures  for 
procuring  suitable  buildings  for  national  purposes,  and  a  sum,  not 
exceeding  $100,000,  was  appropriated  for  that  object.  It  was  also 
determined  to  be  inexpedient  to  erect  such  buildings  at  more  than  one 


*  "Trenton  was  next  proposed,  on  which  question  the  votes  were  divided  by 
the  river  Delaware."  "The  vicinity  of  its  falls  is  to  become  the  future  seat  of 
the  Federal  Government,  unless  a  conversion  of  some  of  the  Eastern  States  can 
be  effected."  Madison  to  Randolph,  October  13,  1783.  (Madison  Papers,  vol.  i., 
576.) 

t  This  act  was  the  occasion  of  one  of  Judge  Francis  Hopkinson's  humorous  pub- 
lications, in  which,  under  the  title  of  "Intelligence  Extraordinary,"  he  described  the 
new  mechanism  of  government  as  a  pendulum  vibrating  between  Annapolis  and 
Trenton.      (Hopkinson's  Works,  vol.  i.,   178.) 

t  August  22,  1784,  a  memorial  was  presented  to  the  New  Jersey  Senate  from 
John  Coxe  and  others,  citizens  of  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  praying  that  ten 
miles  square  might  be  laid  out  on  the  Delaware,  and  furnishing  the  draft  of 
such  a  tract. 


APPENDIX.  367 

place  at  that  time.  Mr.  Pinckney  made  an  unsuccessful  motion  to  have 
the  arrangements  for  alternate  sessions  at  Trenton  and  Annapolis 
repealed,  and  on  the  twenty-third  December  an  ordinance  was  intro- 
duced, providing  for  the  appointment  of  three  commissioners,  to  lay 
out  a  district  of  not  less  than  two,  nor  exceeding  three  miles  square, 
on  the  banks  of  either  side  of  the  Delaware,  not  lower  than  Lamber- 
ton,  nor  more  than  six  miles  above  it,  for  a  Federal  town. 

The  whole  discussion  was  renewed  on  a  motion  for  the  appro- 
priation. An  effort  was  made  to  substitute  Georgetown  for  Lamber- 
ton,  but  the  ordinance  was  finally  adopted  that  the  Commissioners, 
without  delay,  should  have  the  Federal  city  laid  out  in  some  district 
not  more  than  eight  miles  above  or  below  the  lower  falls  of  the  Dele- 
ware  ;  and  enter  into  contracts  for  erecting  and  completing,  "in  an 
elegant  manner,"  a  Capitol,  houses  for  the  President  of  Congress,  and 
principal  officers  of  the  government,  with  a  "due  regard  to  the  accom- 
modation of  the  States  with  lots  for  houses  for  the  use  of  their  dele- 
gates, respectively,"  and  that  Congress  should  hold  its  sessions  in 
New  York  until  the  public  buildings  were  ready  for  their  reception. 
The  immediate  outlay  of  the  Commissioners  was  not  to  exceed  $100- 
000.  Congress  adjourned  on  the  day  after  the  decision,  after  acknowl- 
edging the  attentions  of  the  Legislature  of  the  State,  and  the  exertions 
of  the  inhabitants  of  the  town  in  providing  the  members  with  accom- 
modations.* 

The  order  of  the  day  for  February  8,  1785,  was  to  elect  Commis- 
sioners under  the  ordinance  of  December  23,  1784.  Various  efforts 
were  made  by  the  Southern  delegates  to  delay  the  progress  of  the 
measure,  but  the  majority  persevered,  and  Philip  Schuyler,  Philemon 
Dickinson,  and  Robert  Morris  were  elected  Commissioners,  and  upon 
Mr.  Schuyler's  declining,  John  Brown  was  put  in  his  place.  None 
of  these  were  members  of  Congress.  Mr.  Dickinson  was  an  inhabi- 
tant of  Trenton,  and  Mr.  Morris  had  an  estate  on  the  opposite  side 
of  the  Delaware,  now  the  town  of  Morrisville.f 

When  the  first  appropriation  to  the  Commissioners  was  called  for 
by  the  Committee  of  Supplies  (April  5,  1785) — "Federal  buildings, 
$30,000" — Mr.  Grayson,  of  Virginia,  moved  its  refusal,  but  he  was 
overruled.     Then,  on  motion  of   M'r.   Pinckney,  that  vote   was  recon- 


*  The  landholders  near  the  falls  were  not  insensible  to  their  opportunity.  In 
the  New  Jersey  Gazette  of  May,  1785,  and  many  following  months,  Joseph  Higbee 
offers  for  sale  "a  valuable  tract  of  land,  containing  three  hundred  acres,  situate 
within  three  miles  of  Trenton,  in  the  county  of  Burlington  and  township  of 
Nottingham,  and  within  a  mile  of  Lamberton,  where  it  is  expected  the  Federal 
town   will  be  built." 

t  Washington  foresaw  the  disadvantages  of  Lamberton.  On  the  day  of  the 
above  resolution,  he  wrote  from  Mount  Vernon,  to  the  President  of  Congress, 
in  a  private  letter:  "By  the  time  your  Federal  buildings  on  the  banks  of  the 
Delaware,  along  the  point  of  a  triangle,  are  fit  for  the  reception  of  Congress,  it 
will  be  found  that  they  are  very  improperly  placed  for  the  seat  of  the  empire, 
and  will  have  to  undergo  a  second  erection  in  a  more  convenient  one."  {Writ- 
ings,  vol.    ix.,    95.) 


368  APPENDIX. 

sidered,  and  the  report  was  recommitted.  Here  the  matter  rested 
until  the  twenty-second  September,  when  the  appropriation  of  $30,000 
coming  before  the  house,  Mr.  Gerry  moved  to  make  it  the  whole  sum 
of  $100,000,  but  none  of  the  States  except  Massachusetts  and  New 
Jersey  voted  for  it;  upon  which,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Hardy,  of  Vir- 
ginia, the  item  was  entirely  stricken  out  of  the  bill,  which  was  a 
virtual  repeal  of  the  ordinance. 

The  question  of  location  was  not  revived  after  this  until  May  10, 
1787,  when  Mr.  Lee,  of  Virginia,  moved  that  the  Treasury  Board  take 
measures  for  erecting  public  buildings,  for  the  accommodation  of  Con- 
gress, at  Georgetown  on  the  Potomac.     This  was  lost. 

In  a  few  months  (September,  1787)  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  was  adopted,  and  the  Congress  of  the  Confederation  expired. 
The  Constitution  contained  a  provision  implying  that  the  seat  of  Gov- 
ernment should  be  placed  in  a  district  "not  exceeding  ten  miles  square," 
which  should  be  ceded  to  the  exclusive  legislation  of  Congress.  Offers 
came  in  from  all  quarters.  The  Convention  of  New  Jersey,  which 
ratified  the  Constitution,  recommended  to  the  Legislature  to  enter 
into  the  competition  for  the  Capital,  which  they  did  by  a  vote.  Sep- 
tember 9,   1788,  offering  the  requisite  territory. 

In  September,  1789,  Mr.  Boudinot,  in  the  House  of  Representatives, 
once  more  proposed  "the  banks  of  either  side  of  the  river  Delaware, 
not  more  than  eight  miles  above  or  below  the  lower  falls,"  but  it  failed 
by  a  vote  of  four  to  forty-six ;  and  so  Dr.  Cowell's  legacy  to  the 
United  States  lapsed. 

I  may  close  the  history  by  stating  that  the  main  question  was  finally 
settled  by  a  compromise  between  the  North  and  the  South.  The 
Northern  States  being  anxious  for  the  assumption  of  the  debts  of 
the  several  States  by  the  General  Government,  and  the  Southern 
States  being  opposed  to  that  measure,  and  the  two  sections  being  in 
like  manner  on  opposite  sides  as  to  the  locality  of  the  Capital,  there 
was  a  mutual  bargaining  of  votes.  The  scheme  is  said  to  have  origi- 
nated with  Robert  Morris  and  Alexander  Hamilton  (Secretary  of 
the  Treasury),  and  consummated  at  the  dinner-table  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
(Secretary  of  State)  by  Messrs.  White*  and  Lee,  of  Virginia,  who 
agreed  to  change  their  votes  on  the  assumption  question,  in  considera- 
tion of  Morris  and  Hamilton  undertaking  to  effect  a  corresponding 
change  in  the  Northern  votes  for  the  Capital ;  accordingly,  the  Assump- 
tion measure  passed  the  House  by  a  vote  of  thirty-four  to  twenty- 
eight,  and  the   Potomac  site  by  thirty-two  to  twenty-nine.t     In  July, 


*  "With  a  revulsion  of  stomach  almost  convulsive,"   says  Jefferson  in  his  Ana. 

t  Hildreth's  United  States,  vol.  iv.,  210-216.  Mr.  Jefferson  said  in  1818  that  he 
was  "most  ignorantly  and  innocently  made  to  hold  the  candle"  in  this  game  (Ana., 
Works,  vol.  ix.,  p.  92),  and  again,  "I  was  duped  into  it  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  made  a  tool  for  forwarding  his  schemes,  and  of  all  the  errors  of 
my  political  life,  this  has  occasioned  me  the  deepest  regret."  (Letter  quoted  in 
Hildreth,  vol.  iv.,  363.) 


I 


APPENDIX.  369 

1790,  it  was  determined  to  have  the  seat  of  Government  on  the  Poto- 
mac, and  in  1791,  Washington  selected  the  spot  which  now  bears  his 
name.  According  to  the  terms  of  the  act,  Congress  remained  in  Phila- 
delphia until  December,  1800.* 


*  "We  are  to  remove  before  the  first  of  December  to  Philadelphia,  and,  if  we 
live  so  long,  in  ten  years  to  the  Indian  place  with  the  long  name  on  the  Potomac." 
[Conococheague.]  (.Oliver  Wolcott,  July  28,  1790.  Gibbs'  Federal  Administration, 
Ch.  ii.) 


25    PRES 


APPENDIX 


Deed  of  Basse  and  Revel. 


REFERRED  TO   ON    PP.    I4-IS. 


I 


To  all  people  to  whom  these  Presents  shall  come: 

The  Honorable  Jeremiah  Basse,  Esq.,  Governor  of  the  Provinces  of 
East  and  West  Jersey,  and  Thomas  Revel,  of  the  town  and  county  of 
Burlington,  in  the  Province  of  West  New  Jersey,  Gentleman,  Agents 
for  the  Honorable  the  West  Jersey  Society  in  England,  send  greeting: 

Know  ye  that  we,  the  said  Jeremiah  Basse  and  Thomas  Revel,  (as 
agents  as  aforesaid,)  for  the  accommodation  and  service  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  township  of  Maidenhead,  within  the  liberties  or  pre- 
cincts of  the  said  county  of  Burlington,  and  the  inhabitants  near  ad- 
jacent, (being  purchasers  of  the  said  Society's  lands  there,)  for  the 
erecting  of  a  meeting-house,  and  for  burying-ground  and  school-house, 
and  land  suitable  for  the  same,  for  and  in  consideration  of  five  shil- 
lings to  them,  the  said  agents,  or  one  of  them  in  hand  paid  for  the  use 
of  the  said  Society  by  Ralph  Hunt  and  John  Bainbridge,  of  Maiden- 
head aforesaid,  as  well  for  themselves  as  by  the  appointment  and  on 
the  behalf  of  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  of  said  township  at  or  before 
the  sealing  hereof,  whereof  and  wherewith  the  said  agents  do  hereby 
acknowledge  themselves  fully  satisfied  and  paid  on  behalf  aforesaid, 
they,  the  said  Jeremiah  Basse  and  Thomas  Revel,  have  given,  granted, 
and  sold,  aliened,  enfeoffed,  and  confirmed,  and  by  these  presents,  on 
behalf  of  the  said  Society,  do  fully  and  absolutely  give,  grant,  and  sell, 
alien,  enfeoff,  and  confirm  unto  the  said  Ralph  Hunt,  and  John  Bain- 
bridge, and  Johannes  Laurenson,  Wm.  Hixson,  John  Bryerly,  Samuel 
Hunt,  Theoph.  Phillips,  Jonathan  Davis,  Thos.  Smith,  Jasper  Smith, 
Thos.  Coleman,  Benjamin  Hardin,  Wm.  Akers,  Robert  Lannen,  Philip 
Phillips,  Joshua  Andris,  Samuel  Davis,  Elnathan  Davis,  Enoch  Andris, 
Cornelius  Andris,  James  Price,  John  Runion,  Thos.  Runion,  Hezekiah 
Benham,  Benjamin  Maple,  Lawrence  Updike,  Joseph  Sackett,  and  Ed- 
ward Hunt,  all  of  Maidenhead  aforesaid,  one  hundred  acres  of  land, 
already  taken  up,  laid  forth,  and  surveyed,  within  said  Society's  tract 
of  land  above  the  falls,  commonly  called  the  fifteen  thousand  acres,  in 
the  township  of  Maidenhead  aforesaid,  for  the  use  aforesaid ;  together 
with  all  and  every  the  ways,  easements,  profits,  commodities,  heredita- 
ments, and  appurtenances  to  the  said  one  hundred  acres  of  land  belong- 
ing or  appertaining,  and  all  the  estate,  right,  title,  interest,  possession, 

(371) 


372  APPENDIX. 

property,  claim,  and  demand  whatsoever,  as  well  of  the  said  Jeremiah 
Basse  and  Thomas  Revel  (as  agents  as  aforesaid)  as  of  the  said 
Society  in  law  and  equity,  and  either  of  them  of,  in,  or  unto  the  said 
one  hundred  acres  of  land  and  granted  premises  belonging  or  apper- 
taining; and  the  reversion  and  reversions,  remainder  and  remainders 
of  the  same  and  of  every  part  thereof.  To  have  and  to  hold  the  said 
one  hundred  acres  of  land  and  granted  premises,  and  every  part  and 
parcel  thereof,  with  the  appurtenances,  unto  the  aforesaid  persons  par- 
ticularly mentioned,  and  to  their  heirs  and  successors  forever,  as  well 
to  the  only  proper  use  and  behoof  of  them  the  said  persons  particularly 
mentioned  as  abovesaid,  as  to  all  and  every  other,  the  inhabitants  of 
the  said  township  aforesaid,  and  parts  adjacent,  who  are  or  shall  be 
purchasers  of  the  aforesaid  Society's  lands,  and  to  the  heirs,  assigns, 
and  successors  of  them  and  every  of  them  forevermore ;  to  be  holden 
for,  by,  and  under  the  quit  rents  thereout  issuing  unto  our  Sovereign 
Lord,  the  King,  and  his  heirs  and  successors,  and  the  arrears  thereof, 
(if  any  be). 

In  witness  whereof  the  said  Jeremiah  Basse  and  Thomas  Revel,  in 
the  name  and  on  the  behalf  of  the  said  Society,  have  hereunto  set  their 
hands  and  seals  the  eighteenth  day  of  March,  Anno  Dom.  169V9,  Annoq. 
R.  R.  Gulielm.  tertii  Angl.  etc.,  undecimo. 

J.  Basse,  (l.  s.) 

Thos.    Revel.  (e.  s.) 

Sealed  and  delivered  in  the  presence  of 

Jno.  Tatham, 

Nath.  Cortland,  Justice. 

Joseph  Revel. 

A  true  copy  of  a  deed  recorded  in  liber  B,  No.  2,  page  655. 

Thos.  S.  Allison, 

Sec.  of  State. 


APPENDIX  IV. 


List  of  Pastors,  Elders,  Deacons  and  Trustees  of  the  Trenton  Church. 

PASTORS. 

1736-1760,  Rev.  David  CowELL,  D.D.,  installed  November  3d,  1736; 
released    March    iith,    1760;    died    December    ist,    1760. 

1 761-1766,  Rev.  Wiluam  Kirkpatrick,  supply  April  28th,  1761 ;  to 
1766;   died   September  8th,   1769. 

1769-1784,  Rev.  Euhu  Spencer,  D.D.,  called  November  i8th,  1769; 
died  December  27th,  1784. 

1786-1816,  Rev.  James  Francis  Armstrong,  called  April  25th,  1786; 
died  January  19th,  1816. 

1816-1821,  Rev.  Samuel  Blanchard  How,  D.D.,  installed  December 
17th,   1816;  resigned  April,   1821 ;  died  March  ist,   1868. 

1821-1824,  Rev.  William  Jessup  Armstrong,  D.D.,  installed  Novem- 
ber 28th,  1821 ;  resigned  February  3d,  1824 ;  died  Novem- 
ber 27th,  1846. 

1825-1828,  Rev.  John  Smith,  installed  March  8th,  1825 ;  resigned 
August,  1828;  died  February  20th,  1874. 

1829-1833,  Rev.  James  Waddel  Alexander,  D.D.,  installed  February 
nth,  1829;  resigned  October  31st,  1832;  died  July  31st, 
1859- 

1834-1841,  Rev.  John  William  Yeomans,  D.D.,  installed  October 
7th,  1834;  resigned  June  ist,  1841 ;  died  June  22d,  1863. 

1841-1884,  Rev.  John  Hall,  D'.D.,  installed  August  nth,  1841 ;  pastor 
emeritus  until  his  death.  May  lOth,  1894. 

1884-1898,  Rev.  John  Dixon,  D.D.,  installed  October  15th,  1884; 
resigned  September  i8th,   1898. 

1899-1901,  Rev.  Lewis  Seymour  Mudge,  installed  September  27th, 
1899;   resigned  November  4th,   1901. 

1902-  Rev.  Henry  Collin  Minton,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  installed  Novem- 

ber 19th,  1902. 

(373) 


374 


APPENDIX. 


ELDERS. 


1760, 


1764, 
1765, 


1771, 


1787, 


1797, 
1806, 

181S, 
1817, 


1829, 


John  Chambers,  1840, 

John  Hendrickson^ 

Stephen  Rose. 

Joseph  Green.  1846, 

Benjamin  Yard, 

Hezekiah  HowEi<E, 

William  Tucker.  1858, 

Samuel  Hill, 

Ebenezer  Cowell,  1866, 

Jacob  Carle, 

John  Howell, 

Timothy    Hendrickson.  1875, 

AlexsAnder    Chambers, 

Jacob  Carle, 

Isaac  Smith, 

Benjamin  Smith,  1884, 

Nathaniel  Furman, 

Ogden  Woodruff. 

Peter  Gordon. 

Benjamin  HaydEn,  1893, 

Nicholas  Dubois. 

Nathaniel  Burrowes. 

John  Beatty,  1898, 

James  Ewing, 

Robert  McNeely, 

Joshua  S.  Anderson.  1909, 

John  Voorhees, 

Samuel  Brearley. 

Thomas  J.  Stryker, 

Stacy  G.  Potts. 


James  Pollock, 
Francis  A.  Ewing, 
Aaron  A.   Hutchinson. 
Samuel  Roberts, 
Joseph  G.  Brearley, 
Jonathan  Fisk. 
George  S.  Green, 
Augustus  G.  Richey. 
Henry  W.  GrEEn, 
John   S.  Chambers, 
William  J.  Owens. 
John   D.    Cochrane, 
William  Elmer, 
Robert  P.  Stoll, 
Julius  Johnston. 
Barker  GummerE, 
Charles  E.  Green, 
Edward  S.  McIlvainE, 
Hugh  H.  Hamill. 
Edward  T.  Green, 
Henry  D.  Oliphant, 
Lewis  C.  WoolEy. 
Moore  Dupuy, 
John  H.  Scudder, 
Oscar   Woodworth. 
Barton  B.  Hutchinson, 
Edward  S.   Wood, 
Frederick  T.  Bechtel, 
J.  Warren  Covert, 
Ellery  Robbins. 


APPENDIX. 


375 


DEACONS. 


1771,  Benjamin  Smith. 
1777,  William  Green, 

Joseph  Green. 
1782,  John  Howell. 
1840,  John  A.  Hutchinson, 

Benjamin  S.  Disbrow, 

Joseph  G.  BrEarlEy. 
1846,  Stanhope  S.  Cooley, 

B.  Wesley  Titus. 
1856,  Andrew  R.  Titus, 

William  J.  Owens. 
1866,  Julius  Johnston, 

William  R.  Titus, 

James  H.  Clark. 
1875,  Enoch  G.  Hendrickson, 

T.  Wallace  Hill, 

Samuel  M.  Youmans, 

John  C.  Owens. 


1884,  Joseph  T.  Ridgway, 

James  Hughes, 

William   S.  Covert. 
1893,  Barton   B.  Hutchinson, 

Benjamin  M.   Phillips. 
1897,  Henry  W.  GreEn, 

G.  Abeel  Hall. 
1909,  Charles   Howell   Cook, 

Charles  H.  Dilts, 

Sam'l  D.  Oliphant,  Jr., 

Huston  Dixon, 

Alex.  McAlpin  Phillips. 


376 


APPENDIX. 


TRUSTEES. 


1756,  David  CowELIv, 
Charles   Clark, 
Andrew  Reed, 
Arthur  Howell, 
Joseph  Yard, 
William   Green, 
Alexander    Chambers. 

1760,  Moore  Furman. 

1762,  Obadiah  Howell. 

1764,  William    Kirkpatrick, 
James  Cumine, 
Abraham  Hunt. 

1766,  Joseph  Reed,  Jr., 
Samuel  Tucker, 
Daniel  Clark. 

1770,  Elihu   Spencer. 

1 77 1,  Joseph  Tindal. 
1777,  Benjamin  Clark. 
1780,  Nathaniel   Furman. 
1783,  Moore  Furman. 
1786,  Daniel  ScuddER. 

1788,  Isaac  Smith, 
Bernard  Hanlon, 
Hugh  Runyon, 
Moore  Furman. 

1789,  Aaron   D.  Woodruff, 
Benjamin  Smith. 

1799,  John   Beatty, 

Alex.  Chambers,  Jr. 
1804,  Peter  •  Gordon. 
1808,  James  Ewing, 

Peter  Hunt. 
181 1,  Benjamin   HaydEn, 

Charles  Ewing. 


1818,  S.  L.  Southard. 

1822,  John  Beatty. 

1823,  John  S.  Chambers. 

1825,  Amos  Hartley, 
EbEnezer  p.  Rose, 
Benjamin   Fish. 

1826,  Charles   Burroughs. 
1833,  Henry  W.  Green, 

Armitage   Green, 
Thomas  J.  Stryker. 

1838,  Samuel  R.   Hamilton, 
X.  J.  Maynard. 

1856,  George  S.  Green, 
William  G.  Cook. 

1865,  Barker  GummerE, 
John  S.  Chambers. 

1875,  Caleb  S.  Green, 

Frederick  Kingman, 
Edward  G.  Cook, 
William  L.  Dayton. 

1882,  Charles  E.  Green, 
William  S.  Stryker, 
Abner  R.  Chambers. 

1893,  Frank  O.  Briggs. 

1896,  Elmer  Ewing  Green. 

1897,  John  S.  Chambers, 
Charles    Whitehead. 

1900,  Henry  D.  Oliphant, 
Barker  Gum  mere,  Jr. 

1901,  Thomas    S.    Chambers, 
Henry   W.    GrEEN. 

1907,  Henry  C.  Moore, 

A.  Reeder  Chambers,  Jr., 
1912,  Wm.  E.  Green. 


APPENDIX  V. 


List  of  Burials  Made  from  Inscriptions  on  the  Headstones  in  the  Church- 
yard by  Mrs.  Jennie  Scudder  Reed  and  Miss  Adelia  T.  Scott, 
in  the  Month  of  September,  1911. 

In  this  record,  w.=:wife ;    wd.=widow ;    s.=son ;    d.=daughter,  and 
a  woman's  family  name  in  brackets  means  her  maiden  name. 

WEST    YARD. 

Name.  Date  of  Death.     Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 

Joshua  S.  Anderson,  June   17,  1840.  In  60th  yr. 

Jemima   Anderson,    w.   of  Josuha 

S.   Anderson,    Dec.    10,1839.  In  58th  yr. 

John  Fox,  youngest  s.  of  Joshua 

S.  and  Jemima  Anderson, May    18,  i8ro.  In  19th  yr. 

John   Anderson,    Oct.  5th. 

Sarah,  w.  of  John  J.  Anderson,  .  .April    i,  1810.      79  yrs.  2  mo.  23  da. 

Robert   Archibold,    Sept.    2,  1734.  35  yrs. 

A.    Baker,    

C.    Baker,    

Daniel   Baker,    Sept.  10,1858.  In  78th  yr. 

Catherine  C,  w.  Daniel  Baker,  .  .Mar.  30,  1867.  In  84th  yr. 

Charles  D.   Baker,   Dec.    15,1849.  In  30th  yr. 

E.    Baker,    

R.    Baker,    

Jane   Bell,    June  23,1835.  i  yr. 

John  Bell,   Nov.  10, .  46  yrs. 

Thomas  S.  Bell,   June     7,  1811 

Susan  C,  wd.  of  Benjamin  Brear- 
ley  and  d.  of  Thomas  and  Re- 
becca  Ryall,    Jan.      7,1884.  Sept.  4,   1789. 

Angelina  Burroughs,  w.  of  Rev. 
George  W.  Burroughs,   July    22,1850.  Sept.  23,   1810. 

Hon.  Charles  Burroughs,    Oct.    29,1861.  Jan.  27,  1788. 

Elizabeth,  w.  of  Charles  Bur- 
roughs,     July    27,  1838.  In  i8th  yr. 

Lydia  Ann,  w.  of  Charles  Bur- 
roughs,      Jan.    18,  1864.  Mar.  23,   1805. 

Virginia,  d.  of  Charles  and  EHza- 
beth  Burroughs,    July     2,1863.  Aug.  28,  1821. 

Mary    Ca ,    July    26,  1801.  77  yrs. 

(377) 


378 


APPENDIX. 


Name.  Date  of  Death. 

Alexander  Calhoun,  Sr.,    July    25,1819. 

Alexander,  Calhoun,    April  25, 1826. 

Ann  M.,  wd.  of  Alexander  Cal- 
houn,      May     7,  1874. 

Susanna  Calhoun,  w.  of  Alex- 
ander Calhoun,    Sept.    4,1821. 

Alexander  Chambers,    Sept.  16,1798. 

Elizabeth,  w.  of  John  Chambers,. June     3,  1821. 

David  R.  Chambers,    Oct.    21,1785. 

David  S.  Chambers,  s.  of  Alex, 
and  Elizabeth  Chambers,   May   23,1795. 

David   Chambers,    

Elizabeth  Chambers,    Oct.    18, 1770. 

Elizabeth,  w.  of  Alexander  Cham- 
bers  July    11,1806. 

Elizabeth,  d.  of  Alexander  and 
Elizabeth  Chambers,    Nov.   12,1793. 


Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 
80  yrs. 
38  yrs. 

83  yrs. 

63  yrs. 

82  yrs. 

74  yrs. 

Sept.  17,  1759. 

10  mo. 
2  yrs. 
—  yrs. 

In   1 8th  yr. 


Hannah,  d.  of  John  and  Susanna 
Chambers May 

Hetty   Chambers,    Mar. 

John    Chambers,    Nov. 

John    Chambers,    Sept. 

John    S.   Chambers,    Nov. 

James  Copper,  s.  of  John  S.  and 
Elizabeth  Chambers,   Feb. 

Mary,  d.  of  Alexander  and  Rose 
Chambers,    April 

Mary,  d.  of  Alexander  Cham- 
bers,      

Rose,  w.  of  Alexander  Cham- 
bers,      Nov. 

John   Chambers,    Dec. 

Susanna  Chambers,  w.  of  John 
Chambers,    Aug. 

William   Chambers,    Mar. 

Chambers,   

Mary,  w.  of  Henry  Chumar,   ....Dec. 

Charles  H.,  s.  of  Henry  B.  and 
Mary    Chumar,    April 

Sarah  Elizabeth,  d.  of  Henry  and 
Mary   Chumar,    Mar. 

Rev.  David  Cowell,  first  pastor  of 
this  Church,    Dec. 


7,  1759- 
25,  1807. 
13,  1813. 
19,  1747. 
10,  1834. 

25,  1835- 
13,  1757- 


3  yrs.  3  mo. 

27  yrs. 

72   yrs. 

70  yrs. 

In  53d  yr. 

6mo.  20  da. 

13  mo. 


23, 1780. 

60  yrs. 

4.  1778. 

66  yrs. 

— ,  1700. 

6,  1777. 

28  yrs. 

2^,  1701;.  . 

30,  1847. 

46  yrs. 

I,  1831. 

Nearly  2  yrs. 

23,  1843- 

9  yrs.  7  mo. 

I,  1760. 

Dec.  12,  1704. 

APPENDIX. 


379 


Name.  Date  of  Death. 

Ebenezer  Cowell,    May     4, 1799. 

Mrs.    Sarah    Cowell,    w.    of    Mr. 

Ebenezer   Cowell,    Jan.    20,1774 

Dr.  John  Cowell,    Jan.    30,  1789 

Cowell,  Dec.    10,  1783 

David  Cowell,    Dec.      1,1760 

James    Cumines,    Feb.    21,1770 

John  Dagworthy,    Sept.    4,  1756 

Sarah,  w.  of  John  Dagworthy,  .  .  .July      3,  1783 

John,  s.  of  John  and  Mary  Dixon, 

Nicholas  Du  Bois,   Nov.     i,  1815. 

Rose,   w.    of   Sept.    Evans   and    d. 

of   John    and    Elizabeth    Cham- 
bers,      Jan.    17,1809. 

Robert  Emmett,    June  10,  1835. 

Charles  Ewing,  L.LD.,   Aug.     5,  1832. 

James   Ewing,    Oct.    16,  1823. 

Charles   Ewing,    Mar.  14,  1872. 

Eleanor  G.  Ewing,  w.  of  Charles 

Ewing,    July    — ,  1810. 

Elizabeth     Tate     Ewing,     w.     of 

James   Ewing,    Sept.  16,  181S. 

Elizabeth  Este,  d.  of  Dr.  Francis 

A.  and  Adeline  Ewing,    Feb.    19,1861. 

Robert    L.    A.    Ewing,    s.    of    Dr. 

Francis  A.  Ewing,   Sept.  24.  1862. 

Martha  Boyd  Ewing,  w.  of  James 

Ewing,    Nov.   12,  1782 

Charles    Henry,    infant    child    of 

John  and  Margaret  Grant,  ....  Feb.    16, 1842. 
Charles    Henry,    infant    child    of 

John  and   Margaret  Grant,  ...  .Jan.      1,1843. 
Henry  Clay,  infant  child  of  John 

and   Margaret   Grant,    July    15,1845. 

John   Donald   Grant,    Jan.    30,1865. 

William  C.  Grant,   April  29,  1869. 

Ann    Maria    Green,    w.    of   Armi- 

tage  Green Sept.  28,  1831. 

Frederick,     s.    of    Armitage    and 

Ann   Maria   Green, Nov.   15,  1831. 

Emily  Augusta,   w.  of  Henry  W. 

Green  and  d.  of  Charles  Ewing,  Jan.    11,  1837. 
Howard,    infant    child    of    Henry 

W.  and  Susan  Mary  Green,  ..  .Aug.     5,1842. 


Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 
82  yrs. 

In  S5th  yr. 
In  30th  yr. 

43  yrs. 
1704. 

66  yrs. 

70  yrs. 


2,3  yrs. 

9 

mo 

In 

53d 

yr. 

July 

12, 

1747- 

June 

6, 

1841. 

May 

17. 

1785. 

In 

17th 

yr. 

10  yrs.  7 

mo. 

In 

29th 

yr. 

June 

30, 

1838. 

Dec. 

31, 

1842. 

June 

21, 

1844. 

Oct. 

29, 

1840. 

May 

5, 

1846. 

In 

33ci 

yr. 

2  mo.   10  da. 

38o  APPENDIX. 

Name.  Date  of  Death.    Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 

Henry,  infant  child  of  Henry  W. 

and  Susan  Mary  Green,   Sept.     i,  1846 

Ellen,   infant   child   of   Henry   W. 

and   Susan  Mary  Green,    Aug.  26,  1846 

Mrs.  Susanna  Gordon,  consort  of 

Maj.  Peter  Gordon,   July    18,  1823 

John  H.  Gordon,    

Foster    Hart,    Jan.    18,1830.  64  yrs. 

Elizabeth   Henderson,    Feb.    11,1815.  In  65th  yr. 

Abraham    Hunt,    Oct.    27,  1821.  In  8ist  yr. 

Mary,  w.  of  Abraham  Hunt,  ....April    4,.i8i4.  In  66th  yr. 

Theodosia,  w.  of  Abraham  Hunt, .Mar.     4,  1784.  59  yrs. 

Elizabeth   Imlay,   d.   of  John   and 

Isabella   McKelway,    May    14,1827.  In  8th  yr. 

Lydia  Imlay,   Dec.     6,1830.  In  78th  yr. 

Caleb    B.,    s.    of    David    M.    and 

Sybella   Irwin,    Sept.  20,  181 1 

Sybella,  w.  of  David  M.  Irwin,  .  .Mar.     8,  1811 

Rebecca,   wd.  of  Dr.  David  Jack- 
son,     Sept.  12,  1822.  48  yrs.    10  mo. 

Elizabeth    Kallam,    w.    of    Elisha 

Kallam Dec.    14,  1826.  19  yrs.  9  mo. 

M.   M.   K.,    

Clara    Leake,    d.    of    Samuel    and 

Sarah  Leake,    Jan.    16,  1870 

Samuel  Leake,  Esq.,   Mar.     8,1820.  72  yrs. 

Mrs.  Sarah  Leake,   Mar.   13,1813.  In  89th  yr. 

Sarah    Leake,    d.    of   Samuel    and 

Sarah  Leake,    Nov.  26,  1858. 

Thomas  Lowrey,   Mar.   11,1803. 

Sarah     Lowrey,     w.     of     Stephen 

Lowrey    and     d.     of    Rev.     Dr. 

Elihu   and   Johanna    Spencer,  .  .May   28,1780. 
Hannah,     w.     of     William     Mar- 
seilles,      Jan.    1 1,  1849. 

Latitia,  w.  of  William  Marseilles,.  April  20,  1855. 

William  Marseilles,   May   17,  1859. 

Peter  Merseles,   June  25,  1764. 

Jane,  d.  of  Samuel  and  Ann  Mc- 

Clurg,     Jan.      3,  1834.        I  yr.  7  mo.  3  da. 

Susan,  d.  of  Samuel  and  Ann  Mc- 

Clurg,     Mar.  20, 1828.         i  yr.  2  mo.  12  da. 

George    Miller,    Mar.  27,  1855.      82  yrs.  9  mo.  12  da. 

Josephine,  d.  of  John  and  Martha 

Milledge Jan.      8,  1827.      6  yrs.  6  mo.  15  da. 


31  yrs. 

In 

25th 

yr- 

In 

63d 

yr. 

In 

54th 

yr. 

Dec, 

.  25, 

1788. 

APPENDIX.  381 

Name.  Date  of  Death.    A  gc  or  Date  of  Birth. 

Martha,  w.  of  John  Milledge, Oct.    *3,  1843.  S3  yrs. 

Margaret  Matilda,  d.  of  John  and 

Martha    Milledge,    Sept.    2,  1825.  4  yrs.  6  mo. 

Mary,  w.  of  George  Miller,   Nov.  27,1834.  59  yrs.   11    mo. 

John  Morris,    Oct.    20,1844.  79  yrs. 

Margaret,  w.  of  John  Morris,  ...Mar.  27,1837.  68  yrs. 

Sarah  Morris,    Nov.  25,  1816.  51  yrs. 

Catherine,    w.    of    John    R.    Pear- 
son,     Sept.    4,  1832.  33  yrs. 

Cornelius    S.,    s.   of  John   R.   and 

Catherine    Pearson,    Sept.    4,1832.  9  yrs. 

John  R.  Pearson,    June  11,1848.  In  55th  yr. 

Louisa  W.,   w.  of  John  R.   Pear- 
son  July    15,1868.  69  yrs. 

Ann,  wd.  of  Daniel  Phillips,   ....Jan.      5,1852.  yj  yrs.   i   da. 

Daniel  Phillips,    Oct.    11,1839.  In  70th  yr. 

Daniel,  infant  child  of  Wm.  and 

Margaret  Phillips,    Oct.      2,1826.  April  22,  1823. 

Robert,  infant  child  of  Wm.  and 

Margaret  Phillips,    

Annie,   infant   child   of   Wm.    and 

Margaret   PhilHps,    Mar.     6,1827.  July  2,   1825. 

John    Pinkerton,    Feb.      9,1769.  4  yrs. 

Anna    Maria    Lloyd,    d.    of    Stacy 

G.  and  Ellen  E.   Potts,    July    21,1833.  4  mo.  9  da. 

Ann    Maria    Lloyd,    d.    of    Stacy 

and  Ellen  E.  Potts,   June  21,1855.  Mar.  12,  1835. 

Corneila  S.,  d.  of  Stacy  and  Ellen 

E.    Potts,    Jan.    18,1845.  6  mo.  I  Ida. 

Cornelia  S.,  d.  of  Stacy  and  Ellen 

E.    Potts,    Aug.  12,  1848.  20  mo.  2  da. 

Gardner  Lloyd  Potts,  s.  of  Stacy 

G.  and  Ellen  E.  Potts,   April  22,  1851.  June  6,  1830. 

Stacy  G.  Potts,   April    9,  1865.  Nov.  23,  1799. 

Ellen  Eliza,  w.  of  Stacy  G.  Potts,. Aug.  23,  1842.  Aug.  7,  1803. 

Stacy  G.   Potts,    Mar.  21,  1858.  June  24,  1834. 

William,    s.    of    Stacy    and    Ellen 

E.   Potts,    Nov.     4,  1842.  April  5,  1841. 

Andrew    Reed,    July     7,1758.  3  mo. 

Francis   Reed,    Sept.  12,  1747.  17  mo.  12  da. 

Thomas  Reed,    Feb.      7,1754.  n   mo.  25  da. 

Charles  Rice,    Sept.  29,  1864.  Nov.  26,  1807. 

Charles  Rice,    Nov.  27,  1819.  81  yrs. 

Decius  W.  Rice,   Dec.    15,  i860.  59  yrs. 


382  APPENDIX. 

Name.                                        Date    of  Death.  Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 

Juliette  Rice,    May     5,  1855 

Laura   Rice,    Oct.      4,  1819.  In  i6th  yr. 

M.  Susan  Rice,  Sept.  11,  1818.  78  yrs. 

Susan   Rice,    Feb     22,  1812 

William  D.  Rice,    Mar.  25,  1851 

Ruth   Rowley Mar.     5,1848.  87  yrs. 

Charles  A.  Rozell,   Oct.      9,  1826.  In  19th  yr. 

George   Rozell,    Dec.    21,  1827.  In  23d  yr. 

Mary,  w.  of  John  Rozell,   April    8,1842.  April  8,  1774. 

Sarah   Rozell,   w.   of   George   Ro- 
zell and  d.  of  Charles  Anford,..May    15,  1821.  In  19th  yr. 

Sarah  Rozell Dec.   — , 

John  Barkley  Runyan,    i  yr. 

Runyan,   Nov.  22,  1817.  21  yrs. 

Abigal   Ryall,   d.   of  Thomas   and 

Rebecca   Ryall,    Aug.  25,1863.  In  72d  yr. 

Rebecca,    d.    of   George   and    Sus- 
anna Creed  and  w.  of  Thomas 

Ryall,    May    12,  1859.  In  91st  yr. 

Thomas  Ryall,  Nov.  19, 1843.  yy  yrs. 

Rachel  Scott,   May   22,1811.  i  yr. 

Charles,    s.    of    Isaac    and    Mary 

Smith,     Jan.    30,  1800.  32  yrs. 

Edward,    s.    of    Isaac    and    Mary 

Smith,     Sept.    6,  1791.  25  yrs. 

Isaac  Smith,  Esq.,    Aug.  29,1807.  In  68th  yr. 

John  Pennington,  s.  of  Isaac  and 

Mary   Smith,    Aug     8,1797.  32  yrs. 

Mary     Smith,     consort     of     Isaac 

Smith,  Esq.,    May     7,1801.  69  yrs. 

Sarah  Smith,    Mar.  20,1811.  85  yrs.    11   mo. 

William  Smith Nov.  — , 

Rev.  Elihu  Spencer,  D.D.,    Dec.    27,1784.  In  64th  yr. 

Joanna    Spencer,    relict    of    Rev. 

Elihu    Spencer,    Nov.     i,  1791.  63  yrs. 

Martha     Stansbury,     w.     of     Rev. 

Abraham  Stansbury,    Jan.    15,1831.  In  sist  yr. 

Hannah  [Scudder],  w.  of  Thomas 

J.    Stryker,    

Hannah  Scudder,  d.  of  Thomas  J. 

and  Hannah  Stryker,    May  18,  1867.  Feb.  2,   1842. 

John    Scudder,    s.    of   Thomas    J. 

and  Hannah  Stryker,    Dec.    21,1833.  2  yrs.  11  mo.  8  da. 

Thomas  J.  Stryker Sept.  27,  1872.  June  23,  1800. 


APPENDIX. 


383 


Name. 

C.  S.,  ... 

E.  S.,  ... 

H.  S.,  ... 

J.   S 

M.  S.,  ... 

M.  S.,  ... 
T.  S., 


Date  of  Death. 

1806. 

181S. 

1850. 

1803. 

1812. 

1800. 

1802. 

Margaretta,  d.  of  Anthony  Tate,. Jan.    31,1819. 
Stacy  G.  Potts,  s.  of  Andrew  and 

Mary  E.  Titus,    July      3,  1856. 

Ellen  Eliza,  d.  of  Andrew  R.  and 

Mary  E.  Titus,    May   27,  1816. 

Joseph  Warrell,  Esq., Mar.     9,1775. 

Mary  Y.  Waddell,   May   13,1811. 

Oliver,    s.    of    John    and    Mercy 

Wilson,     Dec.      7,1847. 

Anna    Carle,    d.    of    Thomas    and 

Ann  E.  Woodruff,   Sept.  19,  1831. 

Aaron  Dickinson  Woodruff,   June  21,1817. 

Grace,  w.  of  Aaron  D.  Woodruff, .June  23,  1815. 
George,    s.    of    Aaron    and    Grace 

Woodruff,     Sept.  11,  1797. 

Susan  S.,  w.  of  George  W.  Thom- 
son and  d.  of  Aaron  and  Grace 

Woodruff,    April    8,1863. 

Ann  Woolsey,  d.  of  Benjamin  and 

Ann  Woolsey,   Aug.   18,1858 

Archibald  William  Yard,    Mar.     8,1810 

Mary  Yard,    Nov.  28,  1849 

G.  M.  Y.,  1815. 

Albert,  s.  of  Martha ,   ....Dec.    22,1821 

Ellen,     Aug.  26,  1846 

Henry Sept.     i,  1846 

Howard,    Aug.     5,  1842 

Sophia,  w.  of  Capt.  Richard  ,  Feb.      9,  1801 

William,     Oct.      6,  17— 

James    M.,    Nov.  10, 18 

James   B.,    Sept.  — ,  — 


Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 


July  15,  1855. 

2  yrs.  9  mo. 
36  yrs. 
35  yrs. 

In  27th  yr. 

In   9th   yr. 
Sept.  12,  1762. 
Feb.  28,  1766. 

Mar.  22,  1796. 


Aug.  IS,  1793. 

Dec.  9,   1779. 

In  78th  yr. 

In  94th  yr. 

13  mo.  8  da. 
3   yrs.   3   mo. 


60  yrs. 

70  yrs. 

II    yrs.    30   da. 


384  APPENDIX. 

IN  PAVEMENT,  WEST  SIDE  OF  CHURCH. 

Name.                                          Date  of  Death.  Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 
Hannah    Smith,    d.    of   Joseph    S. 

and  Jemima  Anderson,  Dec.    16,  1807.  i  yr.  3  mo.  10  da. 

Joseph   Broadhurst,    Dec.     2,1819.  56  yrs. 

Rebecca    Broadhurst,    mother    of 

Joseph   Broadhurst,    Jan.    26,1798.  88  yrs. 

Benjamin  Le  Gay,    Jan.    24,1810.  55  yrs. 

Eliza  Ann  Hill,  d.  of  Smith  and 

Elizabeth   Hill,    May     6,1814.  11   yrs. 

Elizabeth  Hill,  w.  of  Smith  Hill 

Samuel   Hill,    May     5,1785.  Sept.  14,  1716. 

Smith  Hill,   Jan.      9,1822.  71  yrs. 

TABLETS  IN  WEST  WALL  OF  CHURCH. 

Name.  Date  of  Death.     Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 

Mary,  w.  of  Tho's  Langstreth,  .  .Feb.      9,  1827.  47  yrs. 

Caroline  Francis,  her  daughter, ..  Feb.    17,1829.  17  yrs. 

EAST    YARD. 

Name.  Date  of  Death.     Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 

Philipina,  d.  of  Phillip  and  Mary 

Howell    and    w.    of    James    F. 

Armstrong April  19,  1854. 

Orlando  Baird,  s.  of  John  B.  and 

Ellen   Appleget,    June  1 1,  1816. 

General  John  Beatty,    May   30,1826. 

Mary,  w.  of  John  Beatty,  Esq. ...Nov.     5,1815. 
Catherine,     wd.     of     Gen.     John 
Beatty  and  d.  of  Barnt  and  Mary 

De    Klyn,    Jan.   2y,  1861. 

Isabella    Ann,    d.    of    Richard    L. 

and  Isabella   Beatty,    Feb.     4,1808. 

James  Bell May     6,  1835. 

Rachel,  wd.  of  James  Bell,    Dec.    26,1869. 

Dr.   Nicholas  Belleville,   Dec.    17,1831. 

Jane    Boss,    Nov.  28,  1835. 

Samuel   Brearley,    Mav   27,  1848. 

Elizabeth,  w.  of  Samuel  Brearley,  Aug.     4,1817. 
Sarah,  w.  of  Samuel  Brearley,  . .  .April  18,  1829. 


Feb. 

2,  1825. 

Dec.  ] 

io,  1749. 

Mar. 

5,  1736. 

April 

19.  1773- 

6  mo, 

.  20  da. 

49 

yrs. 

89 

yrs. 

79  yrs. 

56 

yrs.  4 

mo.  10  da. 

25 

yrs.  10 

mo.  12  da. 

48 

yrs.  8 

mo.  26  da. 

APPENDIX.  385 

Name.  Date  of  Death.     Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 

Mary  Ann,  wd.  of  Samuel  Brear- 

ley  and  of  Charles  Parker,  ....Mar.     9,1882. 
Amanda    H.,    d.    of    Samuel    and 

Sarah    Brearley,    July    13,1825. 

Jane,  d.  of  Samuel  and  Elizabeth 

Brearley,    Sept.  21, 1817. 

Theodosia,     d.     of     Samuel     and 

Sarah    Brearley,    Sept.    3,  1820. 

Charles   Briest,    Sept.     i,  1825. 

Henry    Briest,    Oct.    24,  1822. 

Jane  Brook Nov.  — , . 

Nathaniel  Burrows,   Jan.    29, 1839. 

Ann    M.,    w.    of    Nathaniel    Bur- 
rows,     Mar.  29,  1857. 

Charity  Burrows,    Jan.    14,  1858. 

Ellen  Burrows,    Jan.      4, 1852. 

Emma  E.  Burrows,   Mar.  24,  1855. 

Stephen   Burrows,    Nov.  16,1834. 

Alexander    Campbell,    May   31,  1848. 

Ann,  w.  of  Alex.  Campbell,   Sept.     1,1836. 

John    Campbell,    Jan.    24,  1839. 

Robert  Cunningham,   May     6,  1827. 

Jane,  w.  of  Robert  Cunningham, .April  19,  1853. 

Ann,  w.  of  Matthew  R.  Cu ,.  .Jan.    17,1816. 

Amy  Clunn,   Dec.    12,1831. 

Henry   Drake,    Jan.    — ,18-9. 

Susanna,  w.  of  Henry  Drake, April  18,  1808. 

Samuel,    s.   of   Samuel   and   Mary 

Evans,     April  14,  1838. 

James  H.  Galbraith,    

Eliza   C,    relict   of    Capt.    Charles 

Hamilton,     April  16,  1819.  53  yrs. 

James  Hunter,  s.  of  William  and 

Rebecca  D.  Hart,   Sept.    22,1838.      2  yrs.  7  mo.  17  da. 

Nathaniel   W.   Hart,    May   20,1813.  In  37th  yr. 

Eleanor,  w.  of  Benjamin  Hayden,  1822.  

Anna    Elizabeth,    w.    of    Mahlon 

Hutchinson,     Aug.  20,  1815.  21  yrs. 

Mary  EHza,   infant  d.  of  Mahlon 

and  Anna  E.  Hutchinson,   5  mo.   13  da. 

Aaron   Howell,    Feb.      8,1801.  45  yrs. 

Douglass  Howell,   Aug.     9,  1801.  20  yrs.  6  mo. 

Elliott   Howell,    April  25,  1821.  61  yrs. 

Hezekiah   Howell,    Oct.    13,  1800.  75  yrs. 

26   PRES 


3  mo.  20 

da. 

10  mo.  18 

da 

9  mo. 

3  mo. 

10  mo.  16  da. 

71  yrs. 

56  yrs. 

Nov.  27,  I 

792. 

In  76th  yr. 

17  yrs. 

21  yrs. 

65  yrs.  3  mo. 

13 

da. 

S3  yrs.  7  mo. 

II 

da. 

30  yrs.  9  mo. 

26  da. 

In  62d  yr. 

In  90th  : 

yr. 

76  yrs. 

56  yrs.  4  mo 

■   7 

da. 

19  yrs.  9  mo. 

20 

da. 

386  APPENDIX. 

Name.                                         Date  of  Death.  Age  or  Date  of  Birth 

Hannah,  w.  of  Hezekiah  Howell,. July    15,1815.  86  yrs. 

Marcia  Howell,   Aug.  15,1820.  ^2  yrs.  8  mo. 

Mary  Howell,    Feb.    18,  1819.  26  yrs.  5  mo. 

Phillip   E.    Howell,    Aug.  21,18—.  31   yrs.  9  mo. 

Mary,  wd.  of  Phillip  E.  Howell,.  .Aug.  10,  1836.  58  yrs. 

William,    s.   of   Phillip  and   Mary 

Howell Oct.    11,1818.  II  mo. 

Susan,  w.  of  Charles  Howell  and 
d.  of  Jane  and  Robert  Cunning- 
ham,      Feb.    25,1815.  35  yrs. 

John  Anderson  Lalor,  Dec.     8,  1845.  Sept.  27,  1798. 

Richard  Langstreth,  s.  of  Richard 

and  Isabella  Langstreth,    Nov.   19,1810.  15  yrs.   —  mo.   7   da. 

Alexander    Lowry,     Dec.    17,1810.  In  8ist  yr. 

Mrs.   Mary   Lowry,    Feb.   12,  1852.  87  yrs. 

Jane    Lowry,    Nov.  21,  1851.  Oct.  1789. 

Robert,  s.  of  Alexander  and  Mary 

Lowry,    Aug.     8,  1806.  5  yrs.  4  mo.   10  da. 

Hannah     H.,     w.     of     Xenophon 

Maynard,    Jan.     19,1813.  36  yrs. 

Sarah,  d.  of  Xenophon  and  Jane 

Maynard,     July    26,1826.  2  yrs.  8  mo. 

Maria,  d.  of  Xenophon  and 
Jane    Maynard,    Aug.  21, 1827 

Annie,  w.  of  Thomas  Maires  and 

d.  of  Samuel  and  Mary  Evans,. Oct.    22,  1864.  June  24,  1824. 

John  McCollum,    Mar.  -^,  1836 

William  McKee,   Jan.    29,1859.  71   yrs.   5   mo.    12  da. 

Theodosia,  w.  of  William  McKee,  Aug.  17,  1854.  In  69th  yr. 

James    McKee,    Dec.    14,1832.  22  yrs.  9  mo.    14  da. 

John    McKee,    July    25,1818.  6  mo.  21  da. 

Mary  McMonegal,    Oct.    12,  1856  In  89th  yr. 

Isaac,    Meriam,    Jan.      5,  1821 

John   Mershon,    Dec    17,1806.  50  yrs.   i   mo.    17  da. 

Theodosia,  w.  of  John  Mershon,.           1822.  Dec.  27,  1769. 

Catherine,  d.  of  John  and  Theo- 
dosia Mershon,    July    30,1806.  6  yrs. 

Amanda    M.,    w.    of    George    W. 

Miller,     June     5,1858.  33  yrs. 

Gertrude  Maria,  consort  of  Nicho- 
las D.  Mount,   Oct.    29,  1832.  31  yrs.  6  mo.  10  da. 

Sarah,    d.    of    Nicholas    D.    and 

Gertrude  M.  Mount,   July    31,  1825.  7  mo.  8  da. 

Mary  Ann,  d.  of  N.  D.  and  G.  M. 

Mount,    Jan.    28,  1832.  i  yr.  5  mo. 


APPENDIX. 


387 


Name.  Date  of  Death. 

Jacob  Mulford,    Mar.  20,  1837. 

Mary  Osborn,  d.  of  Rev.  Truman 

and  Eliza  Osborn Feb.    15,1831 

Joseph  Palmer,    Mar.  24,  1831 

Elizabeth,  w.  of  Joseph  Palmer,.  .Oct.    19,  1832, 
Helen  Pollock,  w.  of  James   Pol- 
lock,      Feb.    20,  1827 

John    Raum,     Aug.     6,1806. 

Catherine,  w.  of  John  Raum,  April  12,  1816 

Jacob   Raum,    Oct.    30.  1827 

William  T.  Raum,   Sept.  11,1841 

Ann   Reed Feb.    1 1,  1815 

James  Reid,    Ang.  11,  1806 

Nancy  Reed,    Mar.  28,  1812 

Rebecca  Reed,    Dec.    11,1845 

Nancy  Roberts,   May    25,  1858 

Rebecca   Roberts,    Oct.      6,  1872 

Elizabeth  Rock,   Dec.      5,  1826 

Henry  Rossell,  s.  of  Samuel  and 

Mary  Evans,    Feb.    28,  1845 

Rachel    Rulon,    w.    of    John    Sut- 

terley,    Oct.    24,  1835 

Joseph   Ryno,   Mar.     7,  1828 

Sarah,  d.  of  J.  Ryno,   17,  1836 

Charles    Smith,    Dec.    — ,1793 

John  E.   Smith,   July      6,1831 

Eliza,  w.  of  John  E.  Smith,    ....June  23,1871 
John,  s.  of  William  and  EHzabeth 

Smith,     Aug.  — ,  1789 

Samuel    Smith 1822. 

William  Smith,    April  11,  1799 

John  Southard,    Dec.    27,  1821 

Anna     (on     same     headstone     as 

above),     1835. 

Mary    Southard,    Feb.    22,1823. 

Samuel  Witham  Stockton,    June  27,  1795. 

John   Sutterley,    June  27,1811. 

Elizabeth    Sutterley,    d.    of    John 

and  Rachel  Sutterley,  1793- 

John,  s.  of  John  and  Rachel  Sut- 
terley,      1797. 

Lucy  Sweet,  w.  of  Palmer  Sweet,. June     8,  1829. 

David  Taylor,    Feb.    29,  1810. 

John   Taylor,    Jan.      6,1826. 


Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 


II  yrs. 
71  yrs. 
63  yrs. 

Aug.  I,  1788. 

In  45th  yr. 

45   yrs.    10  mo. 

In  34th  yr. 

21  yrs. 

52  yrs. 

II    mo.    18   da. 

25  yrs. 

61  yrs. 

29  yrs. 

Sept.  6,  1782. 

65  yrs. 

24  yrs.  9  mo.   22  da. 

Nov.  27,  1766. 
Oct.   5,    1825. 

July  I,  1792. 
May  12,  1790. 
April  2,  1794. 

Oct.  12,  1788. 

10  yrs. 
Mar.  21,  1813. 


Mar.  25,  1822. 

In  45th  yr. 
May  29,  1766. 

Mar.  3,   1792. 

10  mo. 

Nov.  21,  1766. 
23  yrs.  7  mo.  30  da. 


388 


APPENDIX. 


Name.                                          Date  of  Death 

Phebe,  w.  of  David  Taylor,  May  11,1847 

Anna  Tindall,    May  24, 1858 

Eliza   Tindall,    Sept.  26,  1868 

Hannah  Tindall,   Eeb.  12, 1840, 

John    R.    Tucker,    June  20,1868 

Abraham  Updike,   Mar.  3,  1846 

Charles  G.  Updike,    Dec.  3,1865 

Elizabeth,    wd.    of   Abraham    Up- 
dike,      July  9,  1861 

Maria    M.,    d.    of    Abraham    and 

Elizabeth  Updike,  Aug.  19,  1825 

John  Updike,    July  21,  1836, 

John  Voorhees,   Oct.  10,  1823 

Keziah,  w.  of  John  Voorhees,  ...Oct.  2,1821 

Susannah,  w.  of  Jacob  Warner,.. Oct.  17,1858 

George  Watson,    May  25,  1827 

Andrew  ,   Sept.  22, 1819 

Ellen  M.,  d.  of  Joseph  and  EHza- 

beth ,     Oct.  —1839 

Unknown,    June  10,  1806 

Margaret,    d.   of  John   and   Mary 
,    Feb.  5,1821 


Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 
June  18,  1769. 

76  yrs. 
Jan.  16,  1788. 

82  yrs. 

July  22,  1801. 

54  yrs.  10  mo.  3  da. 

Mar.  3,  1818. 

65  yrs.  5  mo.  22  da. 

8  mo.  15  da. 

April  28,  1815. 

61  yrs.  22  da. 

59  yrs. 

65  yrs. 

In  37th  yr. 

21,    1769. 


65  yrs.  3  mo. 
16  mo.  2  da. 


TABLETS  IN  EAST  WALL  OF  CHURCH. 

Name.  Date  of  Death.     Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 

Abner  H.,  s.  of  Robert  and  Cath- 
erine  Chambers,    Sept.  17,  1819.  4  yrs. 

Fransina,  w.  of  Robert  Cham- 
bers,      July    25,  1814.  56  yrs. 

Mary  F.,  d.  of  Robert  and  Cath- 
erine  Chambers,    July    20,1830.  9  mo. 

Robert   Chambers,    Jan.    26,  1815.  55  yrs. 

Robert  M.,  s.  of  Robert  and  Cath- 
erine Chambers,    Oct.    10,  1827.  9  mo.  4  da. 

PAVEMENT,  FRONT  OF  CHURCH. 


Name.  Date  of  Death.  Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 

Capt.   Robert   Bethe,    Jan.    27,  1825.  In   76th  yr. 

Elizabeth,   consort  of   Capt.    Rob- 
ert Bethell,   Sept.  22,  1825.  75  yrs. 

Henrietta   Bouveau,    Aug.     i,  1820.  20  yrs.  4  mo.  18  da. 


APPENDIX.  389 

Name.                                         Date  of  Death.  Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 
Polly     Crowell,     w.     of     Samuel 

Crowell,    June  25,  1830.  64  yrs. 

Daughter    of    and    Theo- 

dosia   Hunt,    Feb.    —  1770.  18  mo. 

Huson  Langstroth,    May    19,1820.  26  yrs.   11  mo    11  da. 

Alonzo  Fitz- James  Moore,   Aug.  27,  1830.  9  mo.  27  da. 

James  Elliott  Moore,    Oct.      3,  1830.  In  31st  yr. 

Mary     Mount,      w.      of     William 

Mount,    July    30,1829.  In  43d  yr. 

Daniel    Orr,    June   15,1812.  50  yrs.  5  mo.  5  da. 

Catherine     Ross,     wd.     of     John 

Ross,     Aug.  25,  1830.  70  yrs. 

The  wife  of  Thomas  Scott June  30,1781.  32  yrs. 

Anna  Maria  Smith  2d,  d.  of  Isaac 

and  Mary  Smith,   Sept.  — ,  1779.  6  yrs. 

Henrietta,  infant  d.  of  Henry  and 

Jane  N.   Studdiford,    Feb.    15,1830.  n    mo.   7   da. 

Nancy    Wilmurt,     w.     of     Daniel 

Wilmurt,    June  17,  1806.  29  yrs.  5  mo.  14  da. 

H.  S.  A.,  

PORCH. 


Name.  Date  of  Death. 

Enoch  Anderson,    April  15,  1756. 

Achsah     Bellerjeau,     consort     of 

Samuel    Bellerjeau,    Oct.      2,1823 

Samuel    Bellerjeau,    July      8,1795 

Eliza,  w.  of  Israel  Carle,  Mar.  12,  1790. 

Mrs.   Mary  Dunbar,    Dec.     9,18 

Moore  Furman,  Mar.  16,  iS 

Sarah,  w.  of  Moore  Furman,   ...Jan.      6,1796, 

Genl.   Peter  Hunt,    Mar.  11,1810 

Anna  Maria  Hunt,  reHct  of  Genl. 

Peter  Hunt,    Oct.      8,  1816 

Elizabeth  Ker,   May  21,  1835 

Joseph   Paxton,    Sept.  15,  1750 

Jane  Paxton,   June     i,  1768. 

Eliza    Rogers,    Jan.    30,  1829 

William  Tucker,   Jan.     16, 1790 

Samuel  Tucker,  Jr.,    Nov.     4,  1787. 


Age  or  Date  of  Birth. 
59  yrs. 

In  79th  yr. 
56  yrs. 
29  yrs. 
76  yrs. 
In  79th  yr. 
In  53d  yr. 
42  yrs. 

In  42d  yr. 

71   yrs. 

48  yrs. 

27  yrs. 
In  42d  yr. 

55  yrs. 

2^  yrs. 


390  APPENDIX. 

TABLET  IN  VESTIBULE.  WEST  SIDE. 

Name.                                          Date  of  Death.  Age. 

William  H.  Burroughs,    Aug.,  1829.  3  mo. 

Polly  Crowell,    June,  1830.  64. 

Barnt  Deklyn,   Sept.,  1824.  79. 

Mary  Deklyn,    Mar.,  1825.  77. 

Saml.   P.  Forman,    July,  181 1.  2. 

Jemima  Margerum,    July,  1813.  36. 

Mary   Minion,    May,  1781.  80. 

Julia  Ann  Randall,    June,  1829.  32. 

Esther  Rippon,    Oct.  1795.  60. 

Catherine   Ross,    Aug.,  1830.  70. 

Robert    D.    Taylor,    Jan.,  1822.  2  mo. 

Absalom  Woodruff,   Nov.,  1776.  i. 

Amzi  Woodruff,    Oct.,  1782.  9  mo. 

EHza  Woodruff,    Oct.,  1815.  30. 

Isaac  Woodruff,    Nov.,  1792.  72  yr. 

Isaac  Woodruff,    Sept.,  1823.  32. 

Jacob   Woodruff,    May,  1820.  26. 

Letitia  Woodruff,   Sept.,  1823.  2. 

Mary  Woodruff,   May,  1814.  59. 

Ogden  Woodruff,   Nov.,  1821.  68. 

Silas   Woodruff,    Sept.,  1782.  3. 

Simeon  Worlock,    July,  1792.  39  yr- 


TABLET   IN  VESTIBULE.     EAST   SIDE. 

Name.  Date  of  Death.  Age. 

59  yr. 
I  yr. 
44  yr. 

32. 

41. 

26. 

53- 
22. 
16. 
21. 
22. 
17- 
32. 


Enoch  Anderson,    April,  1756 

Hannah  S.  Anderson,  Dec,  1807 

Asa  Belden Aug.,  1832 

Asel    Belden,    July,  1820 

Hannah    Brumley,    Feb.,  1799 

Adrian  R.  Furman,   July,  1794 

Sarah   Furman,    Jan.,  1796. 

J.   Peter   Hunt,    May,  1829 

Maria  F.  Hunt,   Sept.,  1819 

M.  Furman  Hunt,    Nov.,  1825 

Sally  Ann   Hunt,    Nov.,  1821 

S.  Matilda  Hunt,    Feb.,  1826 

Charles    Morris,    Sept.,  1833 

W.   P.,    


APPENDIX.  391 

Name.  Date  of  Death.  Age. 

E.  P.,  

B.    R. 174s 

Helena  D.  Ryall, Oct.,     1825.  19. 

Jane  F.  Randolph,   Mar.,    1838.  74- 

J.    R.,    1745 

Thomas   Stevens,    Mar.,    1777.  iZ. 

Nancy  Wilmurt,    June,    1806.  29. 

Wm.  P.  Wilmurt,  Sept.,    1804.  2, 


APPENDIX  VI. 


Inscriptions  on  Tombstones  Under  the  Church. 

Made  by|,Thomas  S.  Chambers  at  the  time  the  General  Alterations 
and  Repairs  were  Made  to  the  Church  in  1902. 


This  Monument 

is  erected 

to  the  memory  of 

BARNT  AND  MARY  DEKLYN 

By  their  Daughter  as  a  mark 

of  her  affectionate  remembrance  and  of  the  place 

where  all  that  remains  of  them  on  earth  reposes 

BARNT  DEKLYN 

was  born  in  Boston 

Oct  31st  A.  D.  1745 

and  died  on  his  farm,  near  Trenton  N.  J. 

Sepr.  ist  1824 

in  the  79th  year  of  his  age 

MARY  DEKLYN 

was  born  in  New  York 

Jany.  29tli  A.  D  1749 

and  departed  this  life 

March  nth  1825 

in  the  77th  year  of  her  age 

No  more  O  pale  destroyer  boast 

Thy  universal  sway 
To  Heav'n  born  souls  thy  sting  is  lost 

Thy  night,  the  gate  of  day. 

Immortal  wonders :  boundless  things 
In  those  dear  worlds  appear 

Prepare  me  Lord  to  stretch  my  wings 
An  in  those  glories  share. 

(393) 


394  APPENDIX. 

SACRED 
TO   THE    MEMORY   OE 

JULIA  ANN  RANDALL 

consort  of 

Archibald  Randall 

of  the  City  of  Philadelphia. 

In  the  various  relations  of  this  life 
she  sustained  the  well  merited  character 
of  an  affectionate  Daughter  and  Sister, 
a  most  exemplary  Wife  and  Mother 
and  a  faithful  and  sincere  Friend. 
After  a  painful  and  long  protracted 
illness  which  she  bore  with  the 
resignation  of  a  true  Christian 
she  resigned  her  soul  to  her  God 
on  the  17th  day  of  June  A.  D.  1829 
aged    32    years. 


IN 

memory  oe 

Mr.  THOMAS  STEVENS 

who  departed  this  life 

March  30  1777 

Aged  58  years 


ADRAIN  RENAUDET 
FURMAN 

Born   15th   Deer    1768 
Died    12th    July    1794 


SILAS,  SON  OF 
OGDEN  &  MARY  WOODRUFF 

who  departed  this  life 

Sepr.  26th  1782 
Aged  3  years  &  17  days 


APPENDIX.  395 

AMZA,  SON  OF 
OGDEN  &  MARY  WOODRUFF 

who  departed  this  life 

Octr.  1 6th  1782 

Aged  8  months 

&  26  days 


Beneath  this  Marble 

Lies  the  Body  oe 

Mr.  SIMEON  WORLOCK 

Born  and  educated  in  England 
He  went  at  the  age  of  19  years 
to  St.  Domingo  where  he  resided 
until  the  Insurrection  in  1791  when 
he  was  forced  to  fly  for  Safety  with 
his  Family  and  friends  leaving 
behind  an  ample  Fortune  having  pur- 
chased the  Bloomsbury  estate  near 
this  place,  he  lived  to  enjoy  it  but 
three  weeks,  departed  this  life  on 
the  23d  of  July  1792  in  the  3Sth 

year  of  his  age 
At  his  own  request  he  was  buried  in 

this  Church  Yard 
He  lived  beloved  and  died  lamented. 


IN 
MEMORY  OE 

ASEL  BELDEN 

who  departed  this  life 

July  2d  1820 

in  the  32^  year 

of  his  age. 


INDEX. 


Aberdeen,  Port  of.  page. 

Scot's  expedition  sails  from,   4 

Academy,  Trenton. 

Lottery  of  Innocents,   71 

Description  of,  in  lease  of  1800,  72 

Rev.  Mr.  Armstrong's  interest  in, 197 

Origin  of,  in  Trenton  School  Company,   197 

Adam. 

Negro  left  to  First  Church  by  Dr.  David  Cowell,   177 

Adams,  John,  President. 

Notes  in  diary,   120 

His  visit  to  Trenton  in  1777,  and  notes  in  diary, 167,  168 

Presented  with  an  address  by  Rev.  Mr.  Armstrong,  204 

Aitkin's,  John,  Bible. 

First  published  in  this  country,  recommended  by  Congress,.  .       199 

Akers,  Robert. 

Subscriber  for  parsonage,   28 

Akers,  William. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,    15 

Alexander,  Rev.  A. 

Professor  in  Princeton  Theological  Seminary,   223 

Supplies  pulpit  of  First  Church  after  death  of  Rev.  Mr.  Arm- 
strong,            231 

Preaches  at  Rev.  Mr.  How's  installation,   237 

Preaches  at  installation  of  Rev.  J.  W.  Alexander,  249 

Participates  in  cornerstone  laying  of  Church  built  by  Yeo- 
mans,    256 

Alexander,  Rev.  James  W. 

Received  by  Presbytery,    238 

Estimate  of  Dr.  Armstrong's  preaching 239 

Pastor  of  First  Church,    249 

Letter  from,  to  Dr.  Hall,   249 

Mention  of  Chief  Justice  Charles  Ewing  and  S.  L.  Southard,      252 

Allison,  Rev.  Burgess. 

Buried  in  Trenton,    263 

Alsop,  Richard. 

Executor  of  Hazard,    ^^ 

Am  WELL. 

Calls  Mr.  Kirkpatrick,   iii 

Acceptance,     113 

(397) 


398  INDEX. 

Anderson,  Abraham.  page. 

Subscriber   to  parsonage,    29 

Anderson,  Bartholomew. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

Anderson,  Cornelius. 

Cirantee  in  Lockart  deed, 19 

Subscriber   to   parsonage,    c8 

Anderson,  Elakim. 

Member  of  Cowell's  congregation,    40 

Anderson,  Enoch. 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed,    19 

Mention  of,    33 

Anderson,  Jacob. 

Member  of   Cowell's  congregation 40 

Anderson,  Joshua. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,   15 

Active  Presbyterian,    32 

Anderson. 

History  of  Colonial  Cburch,   62 

Andris,  Cornelius. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

Andris  (Andrus),  Enoch. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

Andris  (Andrus)   (Andrews),  Joshua. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

Andrews,  Rev.  Jedediah. 

Baptizes  John  Hart,    16 

Preaches  in  Trenton,    42 

While  in  Philadelphia,  baptizes  some  Trentonians,   45 

Armitage,  Enoch. 

Delegate,    24 

Active  in  Church  matters,    24 

Opposed  to  Mr.  Morgan,  27 

Sermon  preached  at  funeral  of,   88 

Armitage,  Reuben. 

Grantee  in  conveyance  of  schoolhouse  lot  in  Pennington,  ...  23 

Armstrong,  Rev.  James  Francis. 

Note    of,    concerning    First    Presbyterian    Congregation    of 

Hunterdon  county,    34 

Birth,  parentage  and  education,   179 

Student  for  Ministry,   180 

Chaplain  for  Gen.   Sullivan,    181 

Ordained,     182 

Chaplain  Second  Brigade,  Maryland  Forces,  182 

Letter  to  Houston,    183 


INDEX.  399 

Armstrong,  Rev.  James  Francis — Continued.  page. 

Return  to  New  Jersey  and  married,   i86 

Call  to  Trenton  Church,   i86 

Salary,     187 

Trustees  of  Church  elected,   189 

Services  in  Committee  of  Synod,  195 

Friendship  with  President  Witherspoon  and  Dr.  S.  S.  Smith,  196 

Interest  in  Academy,    197 

Candidate  for  Congress,    201 

Member  of  Fire  Company 202 

Interest  in  Library  Company 202 

Member  of  the  Cincinnati,   203 

Sermon  of  May,   1798,    203 

Account  of  his  sermon,   204 

Address  to  President  Adams 204 

Supplies  in  his  pulpit,    204 

Trustee  College  of  New  Jersey,   206 

Entries   in   diary,    212 

Prayer  at  dedication  of  new  brick  church, 215 

Manager  of  New  Jersey  Bible  Society,   224 

Death    of,    226 

Funeral,    epitaph,    227 

Armstrong,  Rev.  Wiluam,  Jr. 

Early   history,    237 

Ministry   in   Trenton,    238 

Minister   in   Richmond 238 

Death   of,    239 

Characteristics  described  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Alexander,   239 

Characteristics  described  by  T.  Frelinghuysen,  239 

Assanpink  Creek. 

Boundary  of  Burlington  and  Hunterdon  counties,  13 

Reception  of  Washington,    201 

Bailey,  Francis. 

Travels  of,   9 

Bainbridge,  Commodore. 

Entertained  at  dinner,   221 

Bainbridge,  John. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,   15 

Inscription   on   tombstone,    296 

Baldwin,  Elnathan. 

Subscriber   to   parsonage,    29 

Baldwin,  Stephen. 

Grantee  in  deed  of  schoolhouse  lot,  23 


40O  INDEX. 

Bancroft,  Historian.  page. 

Speaks  of  Scottish  Presbyterian  Emigration,    6 

Baptism,  by  Rev.  Jedediah  Andrews,   45 

Barclay,  Robert. 

Governor,    7 

Barracks,    The,    59 

Basse  and  Revel. 

Deed   of,    iS,  32 

Basse,  Jeremiah. 

Governor,    15 

Battle  op  Trenton  Celebrated,   166 

Beatty,  John. 

Sketch    of,    245 

Belcher,  Governor. 

Names   Nassau  Hall,    70 

Bell,  James,  Jr. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Tombstone,     149 

Belamy,  Dr. 

Letter  of  Kirkpatrick  to,    lOO 

Bellergeau,  Daniel. 

Subscriber  for  support  to  Mr.   Cowell's  Call,    41 

Bellergeau,  Henry. 

Subscriber  to  Mir.  Cowell's  Call,   4a 

Bellerjeaus. 

Sketch    of 43' 

Bellerjeau,  Samuel. 

Sketch    of,    149 

Belleville,  Dr.  Nicholas  J.  E. 

Mr.  Dickinson's  account  of  his  history 260 

Belville. 

County  seat  of  R.  L.  Hooper,   151 

Berkeley  and  Carteret. 

Line,     I 

Bethune,  Mr. 

Theological    Student,    242- 

Bethany  Church. 

Organization  of,   267 

Bible  Printing. 

Collins    edition,     199 

Bible  Societies,  242 

BiddlE,  Mrs. 

Account  of  Dr.  Spencer's  Mission,   i60' 

Bishop,  Rev.  David. 

Assistant  to  Mr.   Armstrong,    225 


INDEX.  401 

Blackwell,  Robert. 

Subscriber   for   parsonage,    29 

Blair,  Rev.  John. 

Celebrated  teacher,    179 

Black,  George. 

Minister's  boy,    2>? 

Bloomfield,  Joseph. 

Governor,    230 

Bonaparte,  Joseph. 

Settlement    of,    208 

Bond,  Elijah. 

Sketch    of,    142 

BONHAM,    HeZEKIAH. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

Boswell,  Rev.  William. 

Sketch  of,   263 

Boyd,  Mr.  William. 

Ordination  of,    175 

Bradford's  Mercury. 

Extracts    from,    63 

Brainerd,  David. 

Expelled    from   Yale,    69 

Work  among  Indians,    104,  126 

Brainerd,  John. 

Missionary  to  Indians,   104 

Branes,  John. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   28 

Brittain,  Joseph. 

Sells  site  of  State  House,  155 

Brooks,  Rev.  Walter  A. 

Pastor  of  Prospect  Street  Church,   267 

Bryant,  Richard. 

Subscriber  for   parsonage,    29 

Bryant,  William. 

Sketch    of,    143 

Bryerly^  John. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

BuRNABY,  Rev.  Andrew. 

Describes   Trenton,    58 

Burr,  Rev.  Aaron. 

President  of  College  of  New  Jersey,  70 

Burroughs,  John. 

Grantee   in   Lockart   deed,    19 

Burrowes,  Thomas,  Jr. 

Subscriber   for  parsonage,    , 28 

27    PRES 


402  INDEX. 

Byllinge,  Stacy.  page. 

Creditor  of,    lo 

Cadwalader,  Thomas. 

First  Chief  Burgess  of  Trenton,   57 

Campbell,  Lord  Neil. 

Lieutenant    Governor,    7 

Carle,  Jacob. 

Sketch  of,   141 

Carlisle,   Rev.   Hugh,    42 

Carman,  Caleb. 

Subscriber    to    parsonage,     29 

Carpenter,  John. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,  29 

Carthage, 

Church    estabhshed,    268 

Chambers,  Mr. 

Mentioned   by   Mr.   Armstrong,    34 

Chambers,  Alexander. 

Sketch    of,    95 

Trustee,     172 

Chambers,  John. 

Elder,    97 

Chapin,  Rev.  Henry  B. 

Installation    of,     259 

Charter, 

Presbyterian  Church   in  Trenton,    93 

Clark,  Charles. 

Subscriber  to  Cowell's  Call,  40 

Sketch    of,    94 

Trustee,     172 

Clark,  Daniel. 

Trustee,     172 

ClEayton,  John. 

Gravestone,     18 

Clunn,  John. 

Sketch  of,   151 

Clunn,  Joseph. 

Revolutionary  officer, 151 

COCKBURN. 

Letter  of,    3 

Coleman,  Thomas. 

Grantee  in  Bassee  and  Revel  deed,  IS 


INDEX.  403 

College  of  New  Jersey.  page. 

Foundation  of,    6g 

Presidencies  of  Dickinson  and  Burr,   69 

Nassau  Hall,  named  by  Belcher,   70 

Samuel  Davies  and  Gilbert  Tennent  go  to  England  to  raise 

funds,     T2 

Plan  for  building  at   Princeton,    TZ 

Cowell  acting  president,    74 

Jonathan   Edwards  becomes  president,    74 

Rev.  Mr.  Davies  called  as  president,   78 

Collins,  Is.\ac. 

Printer,  and  one  of  the  founders  of  Trenton  Academy,   ....  198 

Prints    Bible,     I99 

Constitution  oe  Church. 

New,     193 

Printed 194 

CoRNWELL,  William. 

Grantee  in  deed  of  schoolhouse  lot,  23 

CoSBY^  Governor. 

Tradition  as  to  connection  with  vault,    92 

Cottnam^  Abraham. 

Sketch  of,   144 

Covenanters,  7 

CowELL,  Christopher,  J. 

Subscriber  to  Cowell's  Call,    41 

Cowell,  David,  M.D. 

Notes  on,    I77 

Will,    177 

Cowell,  Rev.  David. 

First  settled  pastor,  39 

Call   of,    41 

Schism  of  Synod,    47 

Helps  found  college  of  New  Jersey,  69 

School  in  Trenton, 71 

Lottery  of  Innocents, 71 

Acting  president  of  College  of  New  Jersey,  74 

Death   of,    82 

Funeral  sermon  of,   83 

Grave   of,    87 

Notes  of  funerals  in  register,  88 

Sermon,    88 

Bequests,    90 

Cowell,  Ebenezer. 

Sketch  of,   141 

Cowell,  John  V. 

Supplies  data  for  work,    40 


404  INDEX. 

CoxE,  Daniel.  p^^jg 

Sketch    of,    J40 

CoxE,  Mrs.  Abigail. 

Sketch    of,    142 

Cradle  of  Presbyterianism,  i 

Craighead,  Rev.  Alexander. 

Pamphlet  by,    ce 

Cranbury  Meeting-house,  18 

Creed,  George. 

Sketch  of,   jcq 

Cumins,  James. 

Sketch  of,   117 

CuYLER,  Rev.  Theodore  L. 

Pastor  of  Third  Church,  259 

Dagw^orthy. 

House,    46 

Dagworthy,  Mr.,  88 

Dagworthy,  John 

Wife  of 18 

Davies,  Rev.  Samuel. 

Goes  to  England  to  raise  funds  for  College  of  New  Jersey,  . .         72 

Called  as   President,    78 

Correspondence  with  Cowell,  76 

Davis,  Abiall. 

Grantee  in  deed  for  church  at  Hopewell,  17 

Davis,  Elnathan. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

Davis,  Janet. 

Account  of,    264 

Davis,  Jonathan. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed,  19 

Davis,  John. 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed,  19 

Davis,  Samuel. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

Dayton  Academy,  276 

Deane,  John. 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed,  19 

Decow,  Isaac. 

Sheriflf,     14S 

De  Klyn,  Barnt. 

Mention  of,    142 

Delaware   Falls,    8 

Delawaretown,    8 


INDEX.  405 

PAGE. 

Deruelle,  Rev.  Daniel,   258 

Dickinson,  Rev.  Jonathan. 

Appointed  on  committee,  47 

President  of  College  of  New  Jersey,   69 

Dickinson,  Rev.  Moses. 

Minister  at   Hopewell,    23 

Dixon,  Rev.  John. 

Called  to  First  Church,  271 

Installation,     271 

Millham   Sunday  school,    272 

Liberality  of  Judge  C.  S.  Green,   272 

Rev.   Edward   Scoffield,    274 

Rev.  Frank  B.  Everitt,    274 

East  Trenton  Church  founded,  275 

Rev.  C.  A.  R.  Janvier,  missionary  to  India,  275 

Rev.  Henry  D.  Wood,  missionary  to  Carthage, 276 

John  Hall  Chapel 276 

Work  among  Chinese,    276 

Dayton    Academy,    276 

Support  for  missionary  in  Japan,    277 

Dr.  Hall's  fiftieth  anniversary,    277 

Elders,    278 

Deacons,     278 

Trustees,    278 

Death  of  Dr.  Hall,  279 

Resignation,    280 

Dr.  Murray,  supply,    280 

DocKWRA,  William,  2 

DoD,  Rev.   Albert   B 258 

Douglas,  Dr. 

Travels  of,   9 

Dubois,  Nicholas. 

School  teacher,    37 

Elder  of  Church  and  teacher  in  Academy,  epitaph  of,  231 

DuffiEld,  Rev.  Dr. 

Chaplain  of  Congress,    164 

On  committee  of  Synod  to  print  constitution,  195 

Dunbar,  David. 

Subscriber  to  Cowell's  Call,    41 

Dunbar,  Mrs.  Mary. 

Epitaph,   247 

Durham  Iron  Works,  10 

Dutch  Colonists i 


4o6  INDEX. 

Eayre,  Richard.  page. 

Grantee  in  deed,  17 

Edmundson,  William. 

Journal  of,    8 

Edwards,  Rev.  Jonathan. 

President  of  College  of  New  Jersey,   74 

Edwards,  Rev.  Jonathan,  the  younger. 

Called  to  First  Church, 123 

Ely,  Rev.  George,  240 

Episcopal  Churches. 

In  Trenton,    57 

Eli,  Mary,   88 

Erskine,  Ebenezer. 

Death  of,  notes  on,  190 

Evans,  David. 

Member  of  Committee  of  Presbytery,  42 

EvERiTT,  John. 

Grantee  of  schoolhouse  lot,   23 

EvERiTT,  Rev.  Frank  B. 

Establishes  East  Trenton  Church, 274 

EwiNG  Church,  18 

Ewing,  Chief  Justice. 

Prominent  in  Church  during  D.  Alexander's  ministry, 252 

Sketch  of  career,    262 

Epitaph, 262 

EwiNG,  Francis  Armstrong,  35 

EwiNG,  Dr.  Francis  A. 

Dr.  Alexander's  comments,  253 

EwiNG,  James. 

Sketch  of,   246 

EwiNG,  Maskell. 

Sketch  of,   218 

Falls  oe  Delaware,  8 

Farley,  Caleb. 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed, 19 

Farley,  George. 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed,  19 

Fenton,  Daniel. 

Establishes  Christian  Circulating  Library,   202 

FiDLER,  John. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   28 

FiETH  Church. 

Organized,    266 

FiNLEY,  Rev.  Robert. 

Installed 201 


INDEX.  407 

PAGE. 

FiNLEY,  Rev.  Samuel,  11 

First  Church. 

Formed,     I4 

Fitch,  John. 

Inventor  of  steamboat,   1S2 

His  map,    ^53 

FlEmington. 

Church    at,    203 

•"Flint,  Doctor,"   i77 

Foster,  Rev.  Daniel  R. 

Pastor  of  Bethany  Church,  267 

Fourth  Church. 

Founded,    260 

Frelinghuysen,  Theodore. 

Estimate  of  Rev.  Dr.  Armstrong,  239 

Frazer,  Rev.  William. 

Rector  of  St.  Michael's  Church, 211 

Intimacy  with  Mr.  Armstrong,   212 

Freeman. 

Buried  in  vault,    Qi 

Related  to  Gov.  Cosby,  92 

Fullerton. 

Letter  of,    3 

Furman,  Jonathan. 

Grantee  of  schoolhouse  lot 22, 

Subscriber  to  parsonage 29 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Furman,  Moore. 

Conveys  land  for  church,  33 

Member  of  board 98 

Trustee,    172 

Sketch  of,  220 

Furman,  Nathaniel. 

Trustee,   172 

Furman,  Richard. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Furman,  Samuel. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

Furman,  Sarah. 

Death  of,    88 

GiFFiNG,  Francis. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

A  blacksmith,  children  of,    43 


4o8  INDEX. 

Gordon,  Peter.  page. 

State  Treasurer,  244 

Gospel  Propagation  Society. 

Historical   account,    60 

Abstracts,    61 

Grahame  Colonial  History,   7 

Green  Caleb  S. 

Gift  to  East  Trenton  Church,   272 

Green,  Dr.  Ashbel. 

On  Committee  of  Synod  to  print  constitution,  195 

Green,  John. 

Death    of,    88 

Green,  Joseph. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Heirs  claim  right  to  pew,   172 

Green,  Mrs. 

Death   of,    88 

Green,  Richard. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   41 

Green,  William. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.    Cowell's   Call.    40 

Death   of,    88 

Sketch    of,    95 

Greene,  Rev.  Richard. 

Assistant  to  Dr.  Hall,    269 

Grellet,  Stephen. 

Account  of  his  career,   198 

Grieein,  Mr. 

Death   of,    88 

Guild,  Rev.  John. 

Parsonage   of,    28 

Hall,  Dr.  John. 

Called  to  First  Church,  258 

Third  Church  formed,   259 

Mission  Chapel  built 259 

Fourth  Church  founded,  260 

Clears  debt,    265 

New  Organ,   265 

Offer  for  land  refused,   266 

Fifth   Church  organized,    266 

Prospect  Street  Church  organized,   267 

Bethany  Church  organized,  267 

Church  in  Carthage,    268 

Assistant  pastor  called, 269 

Becomes  Pastor  Emeritus,   271 


INDEX.  409 

Hall,  Dr.  John — Continued.  page. 

Fiftieth  anniversary,   277 

Death,     279 

Resolution  of  session,  279 

Hamilton,  Andrew. 

Lieutenant-Governor,    7 

Hardin,  Benjamin. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed, 15 

Harker,  Rev.  Samuel. 

Discipline  of,   108 

Harris,  Nathaniel  Sayre. 

Sketch  of,  235 

Hart. 

Mentioned  in  Mr.  Cowell's  register,  88 

Hart,  Edward. 

Lived  at  Hopewell 16 

Hart,  John. 

Signer  of  Declaration  of  Independence,  16 

Hart,  Joseph. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage 29 

Hart,  Ralph. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call, 40 

Hartshorne,  Richard. 

Mention  of,  by  Edmundson,  in  his  journal,  8 

Hayden,  Benjamin. 

Trustee,     244 

Hazard,  James. 

Title  to  part  of  land  of  First  Church  secured  through  suit  of,        33 

Hazard,   Nathaniel,    33 

Heath,  Andrew. 

Grantee  in  deed  of  Hopewell  Church  site, 17 

Hendrick,  Thomas. 

Subscriber   to  parsonage,    28 

Hendrickson,  Johannes. 

Subscriber   to  parsonage,    29 

Hendrickson,  John. 

Elder    in    1760 97 

Henry  and  Francis. 

A  ship  of  350  tons 4 

Henry,  Samuel. 

Sketch    of,    155 

Hepburn.  Mrs. 

Missionary  to  Japan,  277 

Heston,  Zebulon. 

Grantee  in  deed  of  Hopewell  Church  site,  17 

28   PRES 


410  INDEX. 

HiGBEE,  Joseph.  page. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Death   of,    88, 147 

HlXON,   WiEUAM. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,   15 

HoFF,  William. 

Grantee  in  Andrus  deed,    32 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,  40 

Home;,  Archibald. 

Seat  in  Council,    91 

Will  of,    91 

Hook,  Sergeant. 

Gives  land  to  Church,   3 

Hooker,  Samuel. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Hooper,  Robert  Lettis. 

The  Green  House,  history  of,  59 

Sketch    of,    150 

Hopewell. 

Church,    18 

Episcopal   Church,    60 

Early  settlement  of,    31 

Hopewell  and  Maidenhead. 

Churches   of,    13 

Houdin,  Rev.  Michael. 

Called  to   Trenton,    6l 

Guide  to  Wolfe,   62 

Houston,  William  Churchill. 

Letter  to,    183 

Howell,  Arthur. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Sketch   of,    95 

Howell,  Daniel. 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed, 19 

Grantee  in  Andrus  deed,  32 

Heirs  claim  pew  right,  172 

Legacy  to  church,    174 

Howell,  Daniel,  Jr. 

Witness  to  Andrus  deed,  32 

Howell,  David. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Howell,  Hezekiah. 

Sketch  of,   145 

Howell,  Obadiah. 

Trustee,    98,  172 

Howell's  wife,   88 


INDEX.  4" 

How,  Mica  J  AH.  page. 

Sketch  of,   146 

How,  Rev.  Samuei.  B. 

Early  history,   237 

Installed  in  Trenton,  237 

On  Committee  to  Prepare  Constitution  of  New  Jersey  Colo- 
nization Society,   241 

Hubbard,  Rev.  Jonathan,   39 

Hume,  Archibald. 

Remains   in  vault,    91 

Hunt,  Abraham. 

Sketch  of,  117 

Trustee,    172 

Hunt,  Edward. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   28 

Hunt,  Holloway  W. 

Ordained,     201 

Hunt,  John. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

Hunt,  Peter. 

Sketch  of,  221 

Hunt,  Ralph. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed, 15 

Grantee  of  schoolhouse  lot 23 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

Hunt,  Ralph,  Jr. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

Hunt,  Samuel. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed, iS 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

Hutchinson,  John. 

Conveys  land  for  a  church,  ' 17 

Hunter,  Rev.  Mr. 

Sermon   by,    205 

Ice  House,  60 

Indian  Missions,  127 

Irish  Immigrants,   i,  5 

Irwin,  Rev.  Nathaniel. 

Rector  of  Neshaminy  Church,  152 

Janvier,  Rev.  C.  A.  R. 

Missionary  work  of,   . ." 275 

John  Hall  Chapel. 

Purpose  of,    276 


412  INDEX. 

Johnson,  Miss  E.  B.  page. 

Work  among  Chinese,   276 

Johnson,  Samuel. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Johnston,  James. 

Letter  of,    3 

Jones'  Child. 

Mention  in  Mr.  Cowell's  register 88 

Jones,  Isaac. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   .• 40 

Jones,  Joseph. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Kalm. 

Travels  of,   9 

Description   of   Trenton,    58 

Keimer's  and  Franklin's  Pennsylvania  Gazette,  63 

Kent,  Rev.  Elisha, 24 

Kingsbury. 

Legislature  meets  at 46 

Residence  of  Simeon  Worlock,  211 

Kirk  in  New  Jersey,  6 

KiRKPATRiCK,  Rev.  William. 

•    His  ministry,   99 

On  committee  to  consider  support  of  Branierd,  103 

Ministry,    103 

Epitaph,    114 

Widow  married  Rev.  John  Warford,   115 

Salary   in   arrears,    116 

KiRKPATRicK,  Hannah,  115 

Ktrkwa. 

Port  of,   4 

Lalor,  Jeremiah  D. 

Epitaph  of,   240 

Lancaster,  Joseph. 

Establishes  a  school  in  Trenton, 246 

Lanning  (Lannen),  Robert. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,   15 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

La  Rue,  Peter. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage 28 

Lartmoor,  William. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Lawrence,  Wm. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage 28 


INDEX.  413 

LawrencevillE  Church.  page. 

Copy  of  engraving  of,    16 

Lawrenson,  Johannes. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

Lawrie,  Gawen. 

Letter   of,    2 

Deputy   Governor,    7 

Leake,  Samuel. 

A  lawyer  of  ability,    243 

Leith. 

Port  of,   4 

Leviston,  Neal  W. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   41 

Liancourt. 

Describes   Trenton,    59 

Littleworth. 

Name  of  Trenton 10 

Livingston,  Governor  William. 

Address   to,    I74 

Notes   on,    176 

LoCKART,  Alexander. 

Conveys  land  for  church,   I9>  32 

LoTT,  Peter. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,  40 

Sketch  of,   43 

Lottery  of  Innocents,   71 

LowREY,  Mrs.  Sarah. 

Death  of  daughter  of  Mr.  Spencer,   169 

LowREY,  Stephen. 

Marries  Miss  Spencer,  resides  in  Trenton,  156 

LowRY,  Jane. 

Bequest  to  Church,    264 

Lyon,  Rev.  James,  ; no 

MacWhorter,  Rev.  Alexander. 

Goes  to  North  Carolina,   160 

Maidenhead. 

Churches  of,  and  Hopewell,  13 

First   Church   at,    16 

Call  to  Dr.  Armstrong,   189 

Map,    13 

Maple,  Benjamin. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

Margaret. 

Mr.  Cowell's  register  notes, 88 


414  INDEX. 

Mather,  Dr.  Cotton.  page. 

Mention   of 25 

Mathis,  Captain  James. 

House    of,    advertised,    149 

Melford,  Eari<  of,  2 

Meredith,  Captain  Sam'l. 

His  company  of  1758,   103 

Merseieles. 

Family   of 147 

Milbourne,  Andrew. 

Subscriber   to   parsonage,    28 

Miller,  Dr. 

Speaks  of  Mr.  Spencer,   175 

Sermon  at  Dr.  Armstrong's  funeral,    226 

Miller's   Legacy,    206 

MiLLHAM  Sunday-School. 

Established,     272 

Minton,  Rev.  Henry  Collin, 

Pastor  of  First  Church,  283 

Needs  of  Church,    284 

Model  of  the  Government  of  the  Province  of  East  New  Jer- 
sey,      5 

Monmouth  County. 

Presbyterians   in,    7 

Montrose,  Port  of. 

Immigrants  sail  from,    2 

Scot  mentions  in  his  advertisement, 4 

Moore,  Jonathan,  28 

Moore,  Nathaniel. 

Grantee  to  schoolhouse  lot,  23 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

MoREAu,  General. 

Residence  of,   208 

Morgan,  Rev.  Joseph. 

Yale   graduate,    25 

Ministry  of, 39 

Morris,  Governor  Lewis. 

Defines  town  in  New  Jersey,  14 

First  Governor  of  New  Jersey  alone,  45 

MuDGE,  Rev.  Lewis  Seymour. 

Called  to  First  Church, 280 

Installation,     280 

Weekly  church  bulletin,    281 

Period  of  growth,   281 

Resignation,    282 


INDEX.  415 

Murray,  Rev.  James  O.  page. 

Supply  at  First  Church,    280 

McKnight,  Rev.  Charles,  123 

Nassau  Hall. 

Name  chosen  by  Governor  Belcher,  70 

Neshaminy. 

Dutch  Presbyterian  Church  in,   7>  26 

Neshaminy  School,  69 

New  Brunswick  Presbytery. 

Minutes    of,    I7 

Newcastle,  8 

New  Jersey. 

Population  of,   1682,    i 

Newspaper  Notes,  63 

New  Side. 

Synod  of  New  York,  so-called,  52 

OccoM,  Rev.  Samson. 

Collection    for,    228 

Oldmixon. 

Letter   of,    3 

Old  Side. 

Synod  of  Philadelphia,  so-called,   52 

Old  Stone  Church,  35 

Orr,  Rev.  Robert. 

Called  to  Maidenhead,   22 

Preached  in  Old  House,   34 

OsBORN,  Susan. 

Mentioned  in  Mr.  Cowell's  register,   88 

Osborne,  William. 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed,   IQ 

Osburn,  John. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,    4^ 

OxLEY,  Henry. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

Paine,  Thomas. 

Mobbed  in  Trenton  in  1803,  210 

Palmer,  Edmund. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   28 

Paterson,  Governor. 

Congratulated,    196 

Patterson  Legacy,   206 

Patterson,  Thomas. 

Minister  at  Borthwick,  4 


4i6  INDEX. 

Parke,  John.  page. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

Parke,  Roger. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,    29 

Paxton,  Joseph. 

Surrogate,  sketch  of,  144 

Paxton,  Mr. 

Mentioned  in  Mr.  Cowell's  register, 88 

Peirson,  William. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   41 

Penn,  William. 

Purchase   by,    i 

Pennington   Church,   23 

Perth,  Earl  oe,  2 

Philadelphia. 

Presbyterians   in,    7 

Philadelphia  Presbytery. 

Record  of  Hopewell  in  minutes  of,  19 

Founded   1704,    21 

Aid  brought  from  Glasgow  and  Dublin,  22 

Phillips,  Philip. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

Phillips,  Theophilus. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,   IS 

PiDGEON,  William. 

Will  of,    149 

PiERSON,  John. 

On  Committee  of  Presbytery,  42 

Pinkerton,  David. 

Sketch  of,   144 

Poem,   20,  226 

Portereield,  John. 

Grantee  in  deed  of  church  site,  32 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Sketch  of,   43 

Potts,  Stacy. 

Residence    of 165 

Prksbyter. 

Milton's  definition,   6 

Presbyterian  Church  in  Trenton. 

Charter  secured,   93 

Trustees,    93 

Elders,    97 

Trustees  of  1788,    189 

New  Brick  Church,  lottery  for,   213 


INDEX.  417 

Presbyterian   Church  in  Trenton — Continued.  page. 

Committee  to  raise  money  and  form  plans, 214 

Sketch  of,  by  Dr.  F.  A.  Ewing,   218 

Notes  on,  during  Mr.  Armstrong's  pastorate,   228 

For  other  topics  see  other  headings,  this  index. 
Price,  Governor. 

Occupied   Kingsbury,    46 

Price,  James. 

Grantee  Basse  and  Revel  deed,   15 

Price,  Joseph. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

Priest's   Travels,    9 

Prospect  Street  Church. 

Organization  of,   267 

Prout,  Ebenezer. 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed,   19 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowbell's  Call,  41 

Pulaski,  Count. 

Takes   refuge,    261 

Puritan   Colonists,   1,7 

Quaker  Colonists,  1,7 

Rahl,  Colonel. 

In  Trenton,    165 

Rarington   River,    8 

Read,  Thomas. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

Reed,  Andrew^. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Sketch   of,    44 

Mention   of 94 

Reed,  Clotworthy. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call 41 

Reed,  Joseph,  Jr. 

Sketch  of,   1 18 

Trustee,     172 

Reed,  Widow. 

Mention  of,  in  Mr.  Cowell's  register,  88 

Reed,  William. 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed,    19 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Reeder,  Isaac. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Reeder,  Jacob. 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed,    19 


4i8  INDEX. 

Religious  Society,  Act.  page. 

Consideration  of,   by  Legislature,    173 

Revel,  Thomas. 

Conveys  land  for  church,   15 

Riddel,  Archibald. 

Mention  of,  in  Scot's  advertisement,  4 

Riddel,  Sir  John. 

Mention  of,  in  Scot's  advertisement,   4 

RiNGo,  Cornelius. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,  40 

Sketch    of,    42 

RiNGO,  Philip. 

Presents  call  to  Mr.  Orr,   22 

Mention  of,    42 

RiNGOES. 

Name,  how  acquired,   42 

Rogers,  Elymas  P. 

Missionary    to    Liberia,    264 

Rosborough,  Rev.  John. 

Victim  of  Cornwallis,  163 

RoscoE,  William. 

Express  rider,  sketch  of,    221 

Rose,  Stephen. 

Mention  in  Mr.  Cowell's  register,   88 

Trustee  in  1 760,   97 

Rose's  Wiee. 

Mention  of,  in  Mr.  Cowell's  register,  88 

Rue,  Rev.  Joseph. 

Parsonage  of,    28 

RuNioN,  John. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

RuNioN,  Thomas. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

RuNYON,  Hugh. 

Sketch  of,   156 

RutherEord. 

Mention  of,  in  connection  with  case  of  Parkinson  v.   Rey- 
nolds,           208 

St.  Michael's  Church. 

Foundation   of,    17,  18 

Church  in   Trenton,    61 

Lottery  for,    61 

Rev.   Michael   Houdin  called,    61 

Rev.  Treadwell  called,   62 

Unity  with  Presbyterian   Church,    157 


INDEX.  419 

Sackett,  Joseph.  p\ge. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,  15 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed,    19 

Sacket,  Simon. 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed,    19 

Schism  of  Synod,    47 

ScoFFiELD,  Rev.  Edw^ard. 

Comes  to  Trenton,  274 

Scott,  Alexander. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   28 

Scot,  George. 

Emigrates,     3 

Advertises   proj  ect,    4 

Publishes    book,    5 

Religious  liberty  described,  6 

Scotch  Immigrants. 

Bancroft   speaks   of,    6 

ScuDDER,  John. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   -         40 

Sc UDDER,  Richard. 

Grantee  in  Lockart  deed,   19 

Grantee  in  deed  of  Church  site,  32 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Sketch    of,    44 

Severance,  Benjamin. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   28 

Severn s,  John. 

Grantee  in  deed  of  Church  site,  32 

Shippen,  William,  Jr. 

In  charge  of  Hospital,   169 

Slack's  Wife. 

Mention  in  Mr.  Cowell's  register,   88 

SilErons,  John. 

Grantee   in   Lockart   deed,    19 

Sinclair,  Sir  John. 

Home  of,    59 

Singer,  Robert. 

Sketch  of,   151 

Sixth  Church. 

Organized,     267 

Smith,  Benjamin. 

Notes  on,    233 

Smith,  Rev.  Caleb,    74 

Smith,  Dr.  Isaac. 

Physician,  j  udge  and  banker,    147 


420  INDEX. 

Smith,  Jasper.  page. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed,   15 

Devise  to  Lawrenceville  Church,    17 

Smith,  John. 

Conveys  lot  for  church,   23 

Smith,  Joseph. 

Sent  to  Maidenhead,   19 

Smith,  Ralph. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,   40 

Smith,  Rev.  John. 

Installed  in  Trenton,  240 

Marries    Miss    Woodruff,    241 

Smith  Thomas. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed, 15 

Smith,  William. 

Fitch  hired  room  from,  153 

Snow,  George. 

Mention  in  Mr.  Cowell's  register,   88 

Snow,  Mrs. 

Mention   in   Mr.    Cowell's   register,    88 

Society  of  Friends,   i 

Soldiers'  Relief  Committee,  169 

Southard,  Samuel  L.,  242,  253 

Spencer,  Rev.  Elihu. 

History    of,    125 

Connection  with  Branierd's  work,  126 

Career  in  ministry 127 

Call  to  Trenton,  135 

Congregation,    139 

Agreement  for  salary,    139 

Signers,    •  • 140 

Sketches  of  congregation,   141-156 

Ministry  in  Trenton,   159 

Pews  in  church  re-arranged,   159 

Goes  to  North  Carolina,   160 

Loss  during  Revolutionary  War,   161 

Entertains  John  Adams,    167 

Becomes  Doctor  of  Divinity,  171 

Trustees  during  his  incumbency,    172 

Salary  in  arrears,    1 73 

Address  to  Governor  Livingston,   174 

Death,  burial  and  inscription  on  grave  of,  175 

Family  history,    1 76 

Stacy,  Mahlon. 

Builds  mill  at  Falls,   10 

Trent  buys  land  from,   31 

Conveys  land  to  Standeland, ;i2 


INDEX.  421 

Standeland,  Hugh.  page. 

Bought  land  from  Stacy,  32 

Stevenson,  Benjamin. 

Executor  of  Enoch  Anderson,    33 

Stockton,  Lucius  Horatio. 

Politician,    242 

Stout,  Jonathan. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

SuMMERFiELD,  Rev.  John. 

Visits    this    country,    245 

Taylor,  Mr. 

Mention  of,  in  Mr.  Cowell's  register,  88 

Tennent,  Rev.  Gilbert. 

Controversy  with  Cowell, 47 

Goes  to  England  to  raise  money  for  College  of  New  Jersey,  72 
Tennent,  Rev.  John. 

Minister  at  Freehold,   50 

Tennent,  Rev.  William. 

Assists  Mr.  Dickinson,  24 

On  Committee  of  Presbytery 42 

Third  Church. 

Organized,    259 

Thomas,  Governor. 

Residence   of 46 

Communication  in  regard  to  pamphlet, 55 

Tindal,  Joseph. 

Trustee,     172 

Ttntern. 

Residence  of  Governor  Morris,  46 

Titus,  Ephraim. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage 29 

Titus,  Timothy. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   28 

Towns. 

Defined,    14 

Treadwell,  Rev.  Mr. 

Called  to  Trenton 62 

Treat,  Rev.  Richard. 

Minister  at  Abington,   39 

On  Committee  of  Synod,  42 

Trent,  William. 

Wife  supposed  buried  in  churchyard,  18 

Buys  Stacy  land,  31 

Trent-Town  Falls,  10 

Trenton  Falls,   9 


422  INDEX. 

Trenton.  page. 

Description  of,  by  Kalm,  57 

Description  of,  by  Rev.  Andrew  Burnaby,  58 

By  Watson  and  Liancourt,  59 

Appearance  of,  in  1788,  comments  of  famous  travelers, 207 

Morals  in  1804,   209 

Mob  against  Thomas  Paine,  210 

Mrs.  Washington  passes  through  the  city,  210 

Trenton,  Episcopal  Church  in,  61 

Lottery   for,    61 

Rev.  Michael  Houdin,    61 

Rev.  Mr.  Treadwrell,   6z 

Trenton  Library  Co.,   202 

Trenton   School   Co.,    197 

Trustees  oe  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Trenton. 

Take  title,   32 

Tucker,  Samuel. 

Gravestone  of,  18 

Sketch  of,   121 

Flight  of,  from  British,  with  currency,   167 

Trustee,    172 

Tucker,  William. 

Sketch  of,   142^ 

Udang. 

Rev.  Mr.  Houdin's  name  so  pronounced,  61 

Union  Fire  Company. 

Rev.  Mr.  Armstrong  member  of,  202: 

Updike,  Lawrence. 

Grantee  in  Basse  and  Revel  deed, 15 

Vannoy,  Francis,  28 

Vault  in  Church,  91 

Van  Vleck,  Rev.  Paulus,  26 

Voorhees,  John,    250 

Von  Veghten. 

Name  found  in  Dr.  Messler's  memorial,  .  . , 149 

Waddell.  Rev.  Mr. 

Rector  of  St.  Michael's  Church,   234 

Wadsworth,  Rev.   Benjamin,    41 

Wales,  Eleazer,   42 

Wardell,  Eliakim,  8 

Warford,  Rev.  John. 

Marries  Rev.   Wm.   Kirkpatrick's  widow,    II5 

Warrell,  Joseph,  Jr. 

Sketch  of,    145 


INDEX.  423 

Washington,  George.  page. 

Visit  to  Trenton,    201 

Public  commemoration  of  death  held  in  Trenton,  206 

Washington^  Mrs. 

Passed  through  Trenton, 210 

Watson. 

Describes  Trenton,  59 

Watson,  Peter. 

Letter   of,    3 

White,  Rev.  Ansley  D. 

Pastor  of  Fifth  Church,   266 

Whitefield,  Rev. 

Effect  of  his  preaching  visit  to  America, 53 

WiECocKS,  Benjamin. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

Wilson,  James. 

Silversmith,     154 

WiESON,  Rev.  John,  39 

Wilson,  Thomas. 

Work  of,  as  Missionary  to  Liberia,  263 

Wiltshire  Clothier,   9 

WiMER,  Godfrey,   149 

Witherspoon,  Dr. 

Writes  History  of  Presbytery,  202 

Wood,  Jonas. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

WooDRUFE,  Aaron  Dickinson. 

Attorney-General,    242 

Wood,  Rev.  Henry  D. 

Missionary  work  of,   276 

Woolsey,  George. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

Woolverton,  Roger. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

WoRWCK,  M.  Simeon. 

Letter  to  Mr.  Armstrong,   211 

WoRSLEE,  William. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,  40 

Wright,  Jonathan. 

Subscriber  to  parsonage,   29 

Yard,  Archibald  William. 

Sketch  of,   143 

Yard,  Benjamin. 

Referred  to  by  Rev.  Mr.  Armstrong, 34 


424  INDEX. 

Yard,  Joseph.  page. 

Grantee  in  deed  of  church  site, 32 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,  40 

Sketch  of,  95 

Yard,  Jethro. 

Bequest  to  Church, 174 

Yard,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 

Mention  in  Mr.  Cowell's  Register,  88 

Yard,  William. 

Mention  in  minute  of  Presbytery,  22 

Grantee  in  deed  of  school  site,  32 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,  40 

Yard,  William,  Jr. 

Subscriber  to  Mr.  Cowell's  Call,  40 

Yeomans,  Rev.  John  William. 

Chosen  pastor,  255 

Builds  new  church,   255 

Letter  of,    256 


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